External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were seen shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries at the dinner hosted by India’s foreign minister to kick off the two-day conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. According to sources, this was the first high-level visit from Pakistan since its foreign affairs advisor, Sartaj Aziz, visited India in December 2016. The meeting was attended by Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, Uzbekistan’s Bakhtiyor Saidov, and SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming. The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also joined the gala. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who arrived in Goa this afternoon, expressed his commitment to the charter of SCO and emphasized that his visit was focused on constructive discussions with “my counterparts from friendly countries”. This development has been closely watched due to the historic significance of the visit being the first by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since 2011.
