Pak skips SCO military medicine conference

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

Diplomatic sources said Pakistan is expected to attend the second day of the conference on Friday. They said Air Attache in Pakistan High Commission Abdul Adil is said to attend the conference along with another official.

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.