Pakistan will attend counter-terrorism exercises in India in October

Pakistan will attend the international counter-terrorism exercises in India in October, the foreign office has confirmed.

At the weekly press briefing, the spokesperson of the foreign office Asim Iftikhar said that under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (SCO RATS) Pakistan will attend the exercises chaired by India later this year.

Pakistan will be attending such drills in India for the first time. The exercises would be held in Mahesar, India in October and Pakistan will participate as a member, the spokesperson told.

The relations between Pakistan and India have been seeing upon and downs in different eras but after Pathankot, Pulwama and finally India revoked the special status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) on August 5, 2019, the relationships had downgraded.

According to media reports, even the backchannel talks have also reached a dead-end with both sides stuck to their positions.

Pakistan maintains that since the restoration of the special status of IIOJK no progress in relationships was possible whereas India has shown interest in the resumption of relationships especially trade.

Pakistani and Indian Prime Ministers will be having two opportunities for meetings in the coming weeks including the SCO summit at Samarkand and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session.

The spokesperson also told that he had nothing about the Shehbaz-Modi meeting at the SCO summit. He said that the UNGA session would be participated by high-level delegation from Pakistan. However, he told that the preparations are being made after which details would be shared.