The Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch on Thursday said that Pakistan had invited the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting being held in Islamabad.

Pakistan is set to host the SCO heads of government meeting on October 15 -16. The event will be preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of senior officials’ meetings focused on financial, economic, socio-cultural, and humanitarian cooperation among the SCO member states.

During a weekly press briefing, the Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed the country had sent invitations to the heads of countries to participate in the meeting.

“An invitation has also been sent to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi,” she said, adding that some countries had already confirmed their participation in the meeting.

“It will be informed in due course which country has confirmed,” she added.

When asked about ties with India, the spokesperson said, “Pakistan does not have direct bilateral trade with India.”

Moreover, the spokesperson said that Pakistan’s foreign secretary was at the 50th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) being held in Cameroon’s Yaoundé from August 29 to 30.

“The foreign secretary will present Pakistan’s perspective on Gaza and Jammu and Kashmir there,” she said, adding that he will also discuss “terrorism and other global issues” during the session.

Baloch added that “Pakistan strongly condemned Israel’s bombing of a historic mosque in Khan Younis”.

In May last year, then-foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India to attend the two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Orga­ni­sation’s (SCO) Cou­ncil of Foreign Ministers.

He was the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in almost 12 years.

At a Senate panel later that month, Bhutto-Zardari called it a “productive and positive decision” to participate in the event.

“As far as the Kashmir issue, bilateral issues between Pakistan and India, and the responsibilities of multilateralism are concerned, my conclusion after the trip is that it is a productive and positive decision to participate in the event,” he said.