SCO Summit: Pakistan allowed Indian FM’s overflight on Delhi’s request

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan made a rare exception for India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to fly directly through its airspace to attend the SCO meet in Bishkek last week, according to officials.

“The Indian government had requested us to allow Ms. Swaraj to fly over Pakistan to avoid the longer route, and we gave them permission,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Faisal was quoted by local and Indian media as saying.

Meanwhile, an Indian official confirmed to The Hindu that “the overflight permission was granted by Pakistan based on route permission filed by relevant [Indian] authorities. External Affairs Minister’s flight to Bishkek was over Pakistani airspace both ways.”

Swaraj had attended the SCO Foreign Minister’s meet in Kyrgyzstan on May 21 and 22, along with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. While the government denied that the two leaders held substantive talks on the sidelines of the conference, they had held a brief conversation in the special lounge where “pleasantries” were exchanged.

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As Islamabad has closed its airspace for flights to and from India after the air forces of two nuclear-armed rivals engaged in a rare aerial encounter in last week of February, Swaraj’s flight would have taken nearly eight hours each way.

However, the distance to Bishkek took only half the time following the special permission from Pakistan.

An estimated 350 flights to and from India have been affected every day for the past three months.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has just won the second term, is also expected to travel to Bishkek soon, in order to attend the SCO summit on June 13-14.