Pakistan Foreign Minister’s SCO Visit to India: A Move for National Interests

In an exclusive interview with WION, Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, spoke about Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto’s upcoming visit to India to participate in a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Khar emphasized that the visit was not a bilateral visit, but an SCO visit, and it was important for Pakistan to attend every ministerial meeting of the organization.

Khar clarified that since the SCO’s establishment, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister had been attending every ministerial meeting, and it did not make sense to sit out a meeting of such importance. She highlighted that Bhutto takes his job as foreign minister seriously, and he is going to the SCO event in Goa as part of his job responsibilities, which is independent of the location.

When asked if Pakistan would raise the Kashmir issue during the visit, Khar stated that
Kashmir is a dispute recognized by the highest international body, the United Nations Security Council, and not just a Pakistan problem. She added that Pakistan will continue to bring out the reality of Kashmir, but there was no bilateral element in this visit.

Re-reported from the story originally published in https://www.wionews.com/