Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan could come face to face in Abu Dhabi on March 1 where Delhi has been invited in a rare move to address the plenary meeting of OIC foreign ministers.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has said that the invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to address the Inaugural Plenary of the 46th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is a “welcome recognition of the presence of 185 million Muslims in India and of their contribution to its pluralistic ethos, and of India’s contribution to the Islamic world”.
The meeting will be held in Abu Dhabi on March 1 and 2, for which Ms Swaraj has been invited by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the ‘Guest of Honour’. The Indian ministry did not mention any possibility of a meeting between Indian and Pakistan foreign ministers.
The OIC describes itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world”, and its stated objective is “to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world”.
