Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif are likely to have a meeting during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit scheduled to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in September this year. The summit is scheduled for September 15-16 where leaders of several nations will gather to discuss regional issues.
During his visit, Sharif will also meet premiers of China, Russia, Iran along with PM Modi.
The sources further confirmed that in its July 28 meeting, the SCO Foreign ministers had reiterated that the heads of SCO states will attend the summit.
However, there has been no official confirmation from the either side on meeting between PM Modi and Sharif. There has been no formal meeting between the PMs of the two nations after relations between India and Pakistan took a nosedive post Pulwama terror attack in February, 2019.
However, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto had denied the meeting of two leaders. Confirming about the same, Bhutoo, in Tashkent last month, said that a bilateral meeting between the Pakistani and Indian leaders is not scheduled during SCO Summit 2022.
"There are no plans of any meetings between Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers in September," he had said, adding that both India and Pakistan are part of the SCO and the two nations are only engaged in the context of the broad-based activities of the organisation.
"India is our neighbouring country. While one can decide on a lot of things, one cannot choose its neighbours, therefore, we should get used to living with them," Bhutto had said.
Bilawal recalled that after 2019, constructive dialogue with India became difficult, while statements based on Islamophobia by Indian officials are further creating hurdles in dialogue.
The SCO has a total of eight member countries including India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.