Sushma Swaraj, Pakistan FM to attend SCO meet

New Delhi: Just ahead of poll results on Thursday, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will attend the meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held at Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) on Tuesday and Wednesday. The conference is also expected to be attended by Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the two ministers could exchange pleasantries although there is unlikely to be any separate bilateral meeting between the two. This will be the last major foreign policy engagement of the Modi Government in its current tenure.

The SCO is an eight-member predominantly Central Asian Grouping that comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. India and Pakistan became SCO members in 2017.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said, “External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will be representing India in the meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to be held in Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) on 21-22 May 2019. This will be the second CFM meeting that India will be attending as a full member of SCO. External affairs minister had also attended the last CFM meeting in Beijing (China) in April 2018. India actively took part in various SCO dialogue mechanisms under the Chairmanship of the Kyrgyz Republic over the past year. The next SCO Summit will be held in Bishkek in June 2019.”

The MEA added, “The minister’s programme in Bishkek will include the meeting of Council of SCO Foreign Ministers.”