Pakistan to host Anti-Terror meet in Islamabad, says India will participate

New Delhi: In what could turn out to be a step towards betterment of the bitter Indo-Pak relations, India is all set to participate in an anti-terror meeting in Islamabad. A statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office said that the Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS) Legal Experts meeting would be held between May 23 and 25 in Islamabad. The meeting under the banner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Pakistan as the host comes almost a year after it became a member of the group in June 2017. “Legal experts from the eight-member states namely China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, as well as representatives of the SCO-RATS Executive Committee will participate in the meeting. The legal experts will discuss terrorist threats facing the region and ways and means to enhance counter terrorism cooperation between SCO member states,” the statement read. The Ministry of External Affairs is yet to confirm or deny the development. Pakistan’s statement further states that it supports the SCO’s efforts towards regional cooperation to fight terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime. It also said that it was willing to share its experiences in tackling the menace of terrorism via the SCO RATS. India’s participation would come as a significant move amid rising tensions between the two nations. Recently, despite tensions on the border, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that all statements on wanting peace would be taken seriously by India. RATS is a permanent unit of the SCO, headquartered in Tashkent. The meeting comes just weeks ahead of the SCO meet in Chinese city of Qingdao from June 9-10. Meanwhile, apart from the legal experts, national security advisors (NSAs) of the SCO countries met on Tuesday. Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) Rajinder Khanna and Pakistan’s NSA Naseer Khan Janjua met each other in China. Source: News18