International: Pakistan ruled out talks with India on bilateral issues during the upcoming visit of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Islamabad to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. India on Friday announced that Jaishankar would lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit in Islamabad. However, Jaishankar ruled out chances of bilateral talks during his visit to Pakistan.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that Pakistan will host the 23rd Council of Heads of Government of the SCO member States from October 15 to 16 in Islamabad. Responding to a query about the visit of Jaishankar and India-Pakistan ties, she said Pakistan had received an "official intimation with regards to this visit" and it was ready to welcome all members.

 Jaishankar's remarks are self-explanatory: Pakistan

"Regarding your question about bilateral meetings, I would like you to refer to the remarks made by the Indian Minister for External Affairs on the 5th of October, in which he maintained that his visit was meant for a multilateral event and not for discussing Pakistan-India relations. These remarks are self-explanatory,” she said.The last Indian external affairs minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She had travelled to Islamabad in December 2015 to attend a conference on Afghanistan. Jaishankar's visit to Pakistan assumes significance as it is seen as a major decision on New Delhi's part.

India-Pakistan ties

The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India's warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack. The relations further deteriorated after India on August 5, 2019 announced the withdrawal of special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories.