ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Defence Minister Khawja Asif is all set to attend the meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers online, while skipping partaking the event in person at a time when his counterparts from China and Russia will be in New Delhi this week, media reports said.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation  Defence Ministers' two-day gathering will begin in the Indian capital on April 27. Other SCO members including the Pakistani Defence Minister had also been invited by India. However, as reported by Express Tribune, Asif would participate in the conference through video link.

India is currently the President of SCO and is holding a nummber of events this year that would culminate with the summit in July.
China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and four Central Asian States make up the SCO. In 2017, the two nations of India and Pakistan became full members of the regional alliance. Despite the hostilities, both parties showed up to SCO activities, such as member states' cooperative counterterrorism exercises.

It was unexpected that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would be sent to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Goa in May. Many people anticipated Pakistan would either scale up its participation in the conference or the minister would attend electronically given the current state of the relationship, according to the Express Tribune.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would visit New Delhi in July for the summit meeting if Bilawal Bhutto's visit goes off without a significant hitch, as per reports The visit of the Pakistani Foreign Minister is believed to be the outcome of some back-channel activities, despite no one confirming it. According to the report, Bilawal Bhutto was encouraged to visit India by friends who both Pakistan and India share.

Bilawal Bhutto will serve as the Pakistan delegation's leader, it was agreed after elaborate  internal discussion. The conference is slated to take place in Goa, an Indian vacation hotspot, on May 4 and 5.

The SCO meeting, which will be attended by the foreign ministers of China and Russia, will probably be overshadowed by Bilawal Bhutto's attendance. The Pakistani Foreign Minister's trip to India would be his first since 2011. He and his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar might have a cordial conversation outside of the meeting, as per media reports.

Observers believe that the visit of Bilawal Bhutto would be a challenge for both Pakistan and India given the likely media hype accompanying his trip.

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