Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday, marking the first visit by a senior Indian official in nine years. His visit comes amid prolonged tension between the two neighboring countries.
Jaishankar’s trip to Islamabad is to attend the 23rd summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), hosted by Pakistan. Although Pakistan had extended an invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the summit, it is Jaishankar who represents India at the event. Modi last visited Pakistan in December 2015, when he made a surprise trip to Lahore to meet then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This visit by Jaishankar marks the first high-level engagement since Modi’s visit nearly a decade ago.
India-Pakistan relations took a sharp downturn in 2016 following the terrorist attack on the Indian Army’s brigade headquarters in Uri. Since then, the two countries have experienced consistent tensions, with diplomatic ties remaining strained. Last year, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto visited India to attend an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa, marking the first such visit from a Pakistani foreign minister in 12 years.
Despite high-level participation at the SCO summits, including foreign ministers traveling to each other’s countries, relations between India and Pakistan have not shown signs of significant improvement. Jaishankar, before his visit, made it clear that his trip would focus solely on matters related to the SCO, and no bilateral discussions were planned.
The ongoing tension between the two countries has also impacted the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Pakistan was set to host the SAARC summit in 2016, but the event has been indefinitely postponed since the last summit was held in Nepal in 2014, largely due to strained relations. The SCO, which includes China, Russia, India, Iran, and several Central Asian nations, continues to be a forum where both countries participate, albeit with minimal direct engagement.