Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has invited his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan, to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government meeting being held in New Delhi on November 30.
According to reports, the Indian premier invited all the eight members and four observer countries on Tuesday during the online summit of the organisation held in Moscow, chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The News quoted sources as saying that the Russian president appreciated Pakistan’s proposals on various counts.
Modi, who tried to demean the objectives of the SCO, tried to take on Pakistan and China in the same stroke without naming them under the garb of respect of sovereignty and said in muffled words that India believed that to enhance connectivity it was important that we move forward while respecting one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He boasted that India had always been resolute in working in sync with principles laid out in the SCO charter, but it was unfortunate that there had been repeated efforts to unnecessarily bring bilateral issues in the SCO agenda which was in violation of the SCO spirit.
It was an assault on Pakistan and China’s policies of enhancing connectivity in the region.
Modi referred to the Shanghai spirit and SCO charter, but he conveniently forgot that it was India that had humiliated the two documents by its actions and inactions.
Diplomatic sources told the English daily that none of the significant member countries’ premiers will attend the New Delhi virtual meeting except Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin while the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, and PM Imran might not be available to attend the heads of government meeting.
Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood or Additional Foreign Secretary Syed Faisal Tirmizi are likely to represent Pakistan at the huddle.
