Swaraj to attend SCO Foreign Minister's meet

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will attend the two-day long foreign ministers' meet of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic starting Tuesday, the government announced. Swaraj will be in the Kyrgyz Republic capital for two days on Tuesday and Wednesday to attend the meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of 10-member Central Asian group which is dominated by China and Russia.

Swaraj's Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi will also attend the meeting. However, it is not certain whether there will be any kind of engagement between the two leaders. Experts believe that the SCO meet could provide an opportunity to India and Pakistan to explore the possibility of bilateral engagement.

A proposed meeting between the Swaraj and Qureshi was cancelled by India in September last year over the "brutal killing of a BSF personnel by Pakistan-based entities" and release of a stamp on slain Kashmiri terrorist Burhan Wani. India and Pakistan joined the SCO as members in 2017.