Officials: India will invite Pak PM Imran Khan for SCO meet

India will invite Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to the annual meeting of the council of heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) it will host this year, people familiar with developments said on Tuesday.

However, a final decision on whether PM Khan attends the meeting, which will likely be held later in the year, will be made by Islamabad, the people cited above said.

India is hosting the meeting of the council of heads of government of the SCO for the first time, the grouping’s secretary general Vladimir Norov told sources.

There have also been instances of the foreign ministers of countries attending the SCO heads of government meetings in the past, the people said.

India was an observer at the SCO since 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.

India and Pakistan both became full members of the SCO in June 2017 and New Delhi’s entry into the China-dominated grouping increased its heft.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.