Editor's note: Mustafa Hyder Sayed is the executive director of the Pakistan-China Institute in Islamabad. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Pakistan's participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers Meeting in India demonstrates its commitment to upholding multilateralism, and enhancing regional, multilateral cooperation, despite its strained relations with India. The Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's visit to India will be the highest level visit of any Pakistani official to India since former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to India in 2014. While there is no official bilateral meeting on the agenda, and the main purpose of the Pakistani foreign minister's visit is to participate in the SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting, the high-level visit in and of itself presents an opportunity for both Pakistan and India.

On the outset, such a high-level visit signals that Pakistan is open to dialogue and that there is a willingness to engage, as opposed to ruling out any sort of dialogue and boycotting the SCO meeting because it is hosted in India. This signal by Pakistan also shows that the country is simultaneously ready to re-engage with India which could prospectively lead to future talks. It is noteworthy that as of now Pakistan and India have no ongoing bilateral dialogue and have only a token diplomatic presence in each other's capital cities.

Since the SCO foreign ministers, including the Pakistani foreign minister and his Indian counterpart who is also the host, will be under one roof, an unofficial meeting on the sidelines of the SCO between the two sides is not unlikely. Such a meeting would make the high-level visit of Foreign Minister Zardari, and the SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting, more consequential. Such meetings have precedence in high-level diplomacy, and are curated by the respective foreign ministry of countries in a low-key manner, without hyping the prospective interaction of the leaders and therefore deflecting unnecessary speculation as well as misplaced expectations from the public and the media alike. At the same time, not having such a meeting on the sidelines, would be another opportunity missed.

While Pakistan and India have longstanding differences and disputes, both countries and their leadership are cognizant that continuing the current status-quo of limiting high-level rhetoric to accusations and speaking to the other side via the media or criticizing the other to stir up nationalism at home for domestic consumption is not sustainable and will not endure. Both countries realize that it is in their long-term interest, as rational actors, to start with developing what can be a consensus on the agenda items for prospective talks, which can at least give a certain direction to the bilateral relationship – a departure from the perpetual warmongering and finger-pointing.

Furthermore, in order to strengthen the SCO and give it the proverbial teeth, it is expected that some of the SCO foreign ministers in attendance, like that of China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, will use their relationship with their Pakistani and Indian counterparts to support them to establish a basic level of communication so that these neighbors can have a functional relationship which provides the SCO the much needed impetus.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, which is an SCO-like organization for South Asian states, was unable to achieve its potential and boost the connectivity and trade it was mandated to do because of the strained Pakistan-India relationship. Therefore, since Pakistan has taken the initiative by extending a hand of diplomacy and dialogue, it is only becoming of the host country India to meet the former half way, which would be in the interest of both countries and the region.

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