NEW DELHI: India’s participation in the SCO meeting of national coordinators in Islamabad to firm up the calendar for high-level meetings has sparked speculation about whether PM Narendra Modi would travel to Pakistan for the heads of state summit next year. Modi has missed only 1 of the 7 in-person summits since India became a full member of the Eurasian bloc in 2017 but Indian officials warn his past attendance is no guarantee of a visit even for a multilateral event to Pakistan, a country India has come to describe as a serial practitioner of terrorism.A senior Indian diplomat, Alok Dimri, travelled to Pakistan this week for the national coordinators’ meeting, as first reported by TOI on Monday. The first such visit from India to Pakistan since the Pahalgam terrorist attack highlighted how the SCO, which is dominated by China and Russia, has remained insulated from India-Pakistan tensions, unlike the more modest SAARC regional framework.For a PM visit though, as official sources said, India will factor in Pakistan’s continued support for cross-border terrorism before making a final decision. The same is likely to apply for the meetings of defence and foreign ministers heading into the main summit, as India seeks tangible and irreversible action by Pakistan against cross-border terrorism to make the overall environment conducive for any substantive engagement.After the meeting this week, Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif will soon write to leaders of all member-states inviting them for the SCO heads of state summit. He had last invited Modi for the heads of government meeting in Islamabad in 2024 but India had then sent external affairs minister S Jaishankar who usually represents India in that meeting.Modi attends the meetings of the Council of Heads of State (CHS), the supreme decision-making body of the SCO which meets annually on a rotational basis in the country chairing the SCO. Pakistan assumed the chairship from Kyrgyzstan at the Bishkek summit last month.Although Modi did skip the Kazakhstan summit in 2024, India will likely weigh multiple geopolitical factors before deciding on his potential visit to Pakistan, apart from Pakistan-backed terrorism. India’s engagement with the SCO facilitates the ongoing normalisation of relations with China while preserving its strategic and longstanding ties with Russia.
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Ironically, counterterrorism and security cooperation is one key reason for New Delhi’s engagements with the grouping that also helps India with Central Asian connectivity and regional security in Afghanistan, while reinforcing its strategic autonomy.Additional secretary Dimri was greeted warmly in Pakistan, with an official photo showing him standing next to Pakistan deputy PM and foreign minister Ishaq Dar. Dimri said the national coordinators had finalised an agenda for common wellbeing and prosperity with focus on connectivity, trade and transit. “This programme will continue for a year and will culminate with Islamabad Summit,” he said.
