NEW DELHI – India will invite Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to attendthe 19th council of heads of government of the Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) which will be hosted by India later this year.
Sources have said that as per protocol all heads of government would beinvited for the event. As per practice, the prime ministers of India andPakistan and presidents of Russia, China and other countries attend the’Heads of State’ meeting.
This would be the first high-level meeting of the SCO that would beorganised here since India’s admission to the eight-member grouping. Indiawould be writing the letter of invitation addressed to the Prime Ministerof Pakistan since he is the head of government.
SCO General Secretary, on a visit to New Delhi on Monday, said, “The SCOHeads of Government meeting will be held in India in the second half ofautumn. All member-states were very happy with the decision. There is hugepotential and India can play a very positive role.”
The economic and security bloc which initially comprised of China, Russia,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, included India andPakistan in 2017. India took over the presidency of the ‘heads ofgovernment’ meeting last year and it was announced in the 18th meeting ofthe SCO’s Council of heads of government held in Tashkent in 2019.
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Since the meeting is going to be held in India and it is the first bigevent that India will be hosting, we will have to wait and see if PrimeMinister Narendra Modi himself will play host.
Meanwhile, Pakistan will have to decide whether its participation will beat Prime Minister-level or someone else will represent the government.
The SCO, which has its headquarters in Beijing, holds summits of heads ofstates as well as heads of government meetings annually in membercountries, India Today has reported.
