After a decade of silence, Pakistan and India share brief 20-second greeting at SCO summit

Indian Foreign Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar briefly interacted with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday at an official dinner held for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Islamabad. 

The two leaders shook hands and exchanged courtesy greetings in a brief encounter lasting less than 20 seconds, as PM Shehbaz welcomed Jaishankar and other summit attendees. 

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained for nearly a decade. Jaishankar's visit marks the first by an Indian minister to Pakistan in nearly 10 years. The last visit by an Indian foreign minister was in 2015 when Sushma Swaraj attended a conference on Afghanistan in Islamabad, with Jaishankar, then foreign secretary, accompanying her.

Despite previous efforts to foster dialogue, including PM Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, talks between the two nations have been derailed.

Before his arrival in Islamabad, Jaishankar made it clear that his visit was solely for the SCO summit, ruling out any bilateral discussions.