Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari shook hands and exchanged greetings at the dinner hosted by India’s foreign minister on Thursday evening to mark the beginning of the two-day conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, sources told media.
The gala hosted by S Jaishankar at the sea-side Taj Exotica Resort in Benaulim was attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Uzbekistan’s Bakhtiyor Saidov and SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming. The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also attended.
Bilawal Bhutto landed in Goa this afternoon to take part in the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, the main deliberations of which is scheduled for tomorrow. This is the first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since Hina Rabbani Khar met the former External Affairs Minister of India, SM Krishna, in 2011. Khar is currently serving as Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs.
