New Delhi: Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is set to lead the Pakistan delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) of foreign ministers in India. The SCO will be held on May 4 and 5 in Goa and will mark the first visit by a Pak minister after former Pak PM Nawaz Sharif visited New Delhi in 2014.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch issued the statement in a press conference and informed about Zardari’s visit to India. Zardari received an invitation in January, from the current chairman of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), the Minister for External Affairs of India Dr. S Jaishankar.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) to be held in #India next month: FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch pic.twitter.com/KUe9HthVrP

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India assumed the rotating presidency of the council at the 2022 SCO Summit held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. India will host also the next summit of the Council of Heads of State this year.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) comprises eight nations, namely, India, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair a meeting of heads of departments of member states on April 20 and will have a dialogue on the prevention and elimination of emergency situations. He will also hold bilateral meetings with the ministers of some member states.

At the meeting, the delegates will share information related to the large-scale emergency situations in their respective territories and the measures being taken to handle them. They will also discuss and approve an action plan for an agreement between the SCO nations on cooperation in providing assistance in the elimination of emergency situations in 2023-2025.