India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which marked the first visit by New Delhi's top envoy to its neighbor in nearly a decade.

According to Indian media reports, no bilateral talks are planned and Jaishankar's visit will follow the SCO schedule.

"India remains actively engaged in the SCO format," India's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday morning, adding that Jaishankar will travel to the summit to "represent India at the meeting."

The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. A further 16 countries are affiliated as observers or "dialogue partners".

Afghanistan, which is an observer nation, has not been invited to attend the two-day event. 

With the SCO sometimes viewed as an alternative to the Western-dominated NATO military alliance, it has a mandate to discuss security. 

This summit is due to focus on trade, security, humanitarian and cultural issues.

The Islamic Emirate has meanwhile said it hopes to attend the next summit, especially as it has bilateral relations with many SCO member nations. 

The summit started on Tuesday and will wrap up on Wednesday. 

Pakistani authorities have taken stringent security measures in Islamabad for the duration of the summit and all roads leading to the capital have been closed.

The SCO member states will be represented by prime minister of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as First Vice President of Iran and External Affairs Minister of India.

Premier of State Council of China Li Qiang will represent his country.

The prime minister of Mongolia as Observer State and Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan as Special Guest will also participate in the meeting.

Due to the SCO conference, hotels and business centers near Nur Khan Air Base and Islamabad Airport are closed.

Pakistan’s custom authorities claim to have seized a large cache of US-made weapons and ammunition worth approximately Rs35 million ($125,000) at the Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 

According to Pakistani security sources the weapons seized included M4 rifles and magazines. 

“The recent seizure of US-made weapons raises concerns about potential Taliban support for TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), either directly or indirectly, as a strategic move to pressure Pakistan or assert influence in the region,” the sources said.

Pakistan has continued to accuse Afghanistan of facilitating militants, a claim the Islamic Emirate has vehemently denied. The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly said it will not allow anyone to threaten another country’s security from within Afghanistan.

“The rising activity of terrorist groups in Afghanistan risks destabilizing the entire region, potentially leading to increased violence, displacement, and economic hardship,” Arab News quoted one source as saying.

Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the TTP and other militant groups, which have targeted security forces convoys and check posts, and carried out targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in recent months.

Arab News quoted another security source who warned: “Afghanistan’s situation has far-reaching implications for international security.

“The presence of terrorist groups and IAG’s (interim Afghan government) persistent denial of the reality could fuel global terrorism and threaten regional stability.”

The world's 26 poorest countries, home to 40% of the most poverty-stricken people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, a new World Bank report showed on Sunday.

The report finds that these economies are poorer today on average than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the rest of the world has largely recovered from COVID and resumed its growth trajectory, Reuters reported.

Released a week before World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings get underway in Washington, the report confirms a major setback to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and underscores the World Bank's efforts this year to raise $100 billion to replenish its financing fund for the world's poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).

The 26 poorest economies studied, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than $1,145, are increasingly reliant on IDA grants and near-zero interest rate loans as market financing has largely dried up, the World Bank said. Their average debt-to-GDP ratio of 72% is at an 18-year high and half of the group are either in debt distress or at high risk of it.

Most of the countries in the study are in sub-Saharan Africa, from Ethiopia to Chad and Congo, but the list also includes Afghanistan and Yemen, read the report.

Two-thirds of the 26 poorest countries are either in armed conflicts or have difficulty maintaining order because of institutional and social fragility, which inhibit foreign investment, and nearly all export commodities, exposing them to frequent boom-and-bust cycles, the report said.

"At a time when much of the world simply backed away from the poorest countries, IDA has been their lifeline," World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said in a statement. "Over the past five years, it has poured most of its financial resources into the 26 low-income economies, keeping them afloat through the historic setbacks they suffered."

IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries. It raised a record $93 billion in 2021 and World Bank President Ajay Banga is aiming to exceed that with more than $100 billion in pledges by Dec. 6.

Natural disasters have also taken a greater toll on these countries over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2023, natural disasters were associated with average annual losses of 2% of GDP, five times the average among lower-middle-income countries, pointing to the need for much higher investment, the World Bank said.

The report also recommended that these economies, which have large informal sectors operating outside their tax systems, do more to help themselves. This includes improving tax collections by simplifying taxpayer registration and tax administration and improving the efficiency of public spending.