India is the present chair of the eight-nation SCO, and the invite to Asif got here after New Delhi invited Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, for an SCO overseas ministerial conclave, to be held in Goa in May.

India has invited China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang for the conclave. Pakistan is but to verify whether or not the 2 ministers will attend the conferences.

Besides India, Pakistan and China, the opposite SCO member-countries are Russia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

If Asif attends the assembly in particular person, this will likely be a uncommon occasion when a Pakistan Defence minister visits India. Military historian Mandeep Bajwa recalled that the final such assembly befell when Pakistan’s then President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited India and, along with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, signed the Simla Agreement in July 1972. Bhutto on the time held a number of portfolios, together with Defence and Foreign Affairs.

“Other than that, there has been no such opportunity earlier for a Pakistan Defence minister to visit India, as he has little say in military affairs of Pakistan,” Bajwa mentioned. “For the same reason, a political heavyweight usually never holds the Defence portfolio in Pakistan.”

The final Pakistan Foreign minister to go to India was Hina Rabbani Khar in 2011.

The invitation to the Pakistan Defence minister was despatched by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

India will individually invite Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for the annual SCO summit later this yr. It is learnt that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the assembly.

Issues associated to terrorism, regional safety and the safety state of affairs in Afghanistan are amongst matters anticipated to function within the assembly.

Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif had visited India to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May 2014. Subsequently, then External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had visited Pakistan, adopted by a short go to by Prime Minister Modi.

Ties between the 2 neighbours began going downhill after the Pulwama terror assault in February 2019. In response, Indian Air Force plane went deep inside Pakistan territory to destroy militant coaching camps in Balakot.

In August that yr, the ending of the particular standing of Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two Union Territories added to the pressure in ties. Despite sporadic situations of cross-border terrorism, peace has largely prevailed alongside the LoC after the 2 armies introduced a ceasefire in February 2021.