Days After Dastardly Ambush In Poonch, Pakistan Defence Minister To Skip SCO Meet In Delhi

Pakistan's Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, will not attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Minister's meeting, to be held in the India this week.

However, Pakistan Foriegn Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend the SCO Foreign Minister's Meeting in Goa on 4-5 March. The defence minister's meet is scheduled to be held on 27-28 April.

According to a report, a formal invite was sent to Pakistan and the Defence Minister might attend the meeting through video-conferencing.

The Pakistan's defence minister denial of a visit to India are coming at a time when five Indian Army soldiers were killed in a dastardly attack by Pakistan-based proxy wing of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) People's Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF).

According to various reports, Pakistan-backed terrorists used Chinese-made 7.62mm steel-core armour-piercing bullets. The ambush was pre-planned and the terrorist even conducted prior reconnaissance of the area.

The Chinese Defence Minister General Li Shangfu, on the other hand, will attend the defence minister's meet. Moreover, just a day before (23 April), India and China also held the 18th round of Corp Commanders level talks to solve the outstanding issues in the ongoing border standoff between India and China.

This will be the first visit of Chinese defence minister to India since the May 2020 Galwan clash.

India got the leadership of the summit from Uzbekistan after the last meeting at Samarkand. India will hold various ministerial meetings with the last summit to be held in July.