Pak skips SCO military medicine conference

Pakistan on Thursday skipped the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) military medicine conference organised by India here. The conference is being attended by 27 international and 40 Indian delegates.

At the conference, the inaugural session of which was addressed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the seat allotted to Pakistan was vacant. Asked if Pakistan was invited to the conference, a Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said, "As far as I know, they were invited but they did not participate in today's meeting."

This is the first military cooperation event hosted by India after becoming a full-time member of the SCO. India and Pakistan became SCO members in June 2017. Besides the two countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are also members of the SCO.