India asks Pakistan to open airspace for PM Modi’s flight to Bishkek

India has requested Pakistan to allow Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flight to Bishkek to pass through its airspace.

Modi will be travelling to Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting on June 13 and 14.

A flight to Bishkek through Pakistan would normally take around four hours, but a detour will result in an eight-hour flight.

Pakistan had shut its airspace following air strikes by IAF at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on February 26 this year.

However, the two countries had made an exemption for each other’s Foreign Ministers last month. India allowed Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to fly through its airspace for a visit to the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Pakistan reciprocated by permitting then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to fly through its airspace to Bishkek on May 22.

Pakistan has already partially lifted restrictions on the use of its airspace, opening two out of 11 routes through its southern parts for flights to and from India.

But planes flying to countries north of Pakistan airlines still have to take a long detour.