Pakistani and Indian prime ministers are expected to meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand in September.
According to reports, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to visit Samarkand, Uzbekistan for participation in the SCO summit where he would meet the heads of countries including India, China, Russia and Iran.
It would be the first time in seven years that the two prime ministers will be present under one roof. In 2015, PM Modi visited Pakistan to meet ex-PM Nawaz Sharif during a surprise stopover in Lahore. However, relations between the two sides nosedived after August 2019 when India changed the status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), that halted all the progress relations between the two nuclear neighbours.
According to reports, the SCO meeting is scheduled to be held on September 15-16 in Samarkand.
During the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting on July 28, it was decided that all the heads of member countries will participate in the summit meeting in September.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had however stated that there were no plans of any meeting between the Pakistani and Indian counterparts during the September summit meeting.
Bilawal had further said that after August 2019, constructive dialogues with India had become difficult. He also added that one could not choose their neighbours and hence we should get used to living with them.
