What prompts Bilawal's visit to India?

Pakistan’s decision to send Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to the regional conference in India was taken after extensive in-house consultations and all stakeholders including the security establishment concluded that the country must not leave such an important forum by skipping the meeting.

Official sources have given rare insights into how the government arrived at the decision and what factors were instrumental in convincing the decision-makers to give the foreign minister go-ahead for the visit.

Bilawal is set to lead the Pakistani delegation for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) council of foreign ministers meeting scheduled to be held in Goa, India on May 4 and 5. This is the first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since 2011.

India had extended the invitation to Bilawal along with foreign ministers of other member states that include Russia, China and certain central Asian states.

The invitation was extended to Pakistan in January. However, the sources said the consultations to determine whether Pakistan should attend the SCO meetings in India began much before that.

Read more: Bilawal going to SCO

“We knew India was going to be the president of SCO. We knew Pakistan would be invited as India had no option but to extend invitations to Pakistan for all the events,” a source familiar with the development told The Express Tribune.

The source said that Pakistan had begun consultations six months ago and arrived at a decision that Islamabad must not skip the meeting just because it was taking place in India.

The Foreign Office, the source added, took the lead and advocated in favour of Bilawal visiting India. The security establishment and other players too endorsed the foreign office’s decision.

The source made it clear that all the stakeholders also agreed that the move would not in any way compromise Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir or other issues given Bilawal’s visit is only to attend the SCO meeting.

The reason Pakistan decided to attend the meeting in person was that Islamabad and New Delhi, when they were admitted full members of the SCO in 2017, had committed not to undermine the regional forum.

The presence of Russia and China, the two major players, also played a part in Pakistan’s decision. “There is no point Pakistan skipping the meeting and sending a wrong message to the regional players,” another source said, citing the rationale behind Pakistan’s move.

Given India is the host, there is a talk going around if Bilawal will have any bilateral meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. A report in the Indian media on Wednesday claimed that India had turned down a request by Pakistan for a bilateral meeting.

However, sources said no such request was made from the Pakistan side. The FO did not issue a formal statement to rebut the claims since this was reported by the Indian media and not necessarily by the Indian government.

Sources said that Pakistan has the least expectations from Bilawal’s visit to India as far as the bilateral relationship is concerned but it does not want to create any negativity ahead of the foreign minister’s tour to Goa.

There is a sense within the government circles that unlike in the past the attitude of the Indian authorities during their conversations about the visit was not hostile.

It is believed that India being the host of SCO has a greater responsibility to treat all members with certain respect. The successful holding of a council of foreign ministers meeting will make it easier for India to host a summit in July this year.