The foreign office said on Sunday that Pakistan’s cricket team will go to India to play in this year’s 50-over World Cup.
Over the last ten years, the two countries have only played each other in multi-team games at neutral sites. This is because their relationships are tense.
“Pakistan has always said that sports and politics shouldn’t be mixed,” the foreign office said in a statement about its decision to take part in the World Cup in October and November. “Pakistan thinks that the state of its bilateral relations with India shouldn’t stop it from meeting its international sports obligations.”
India has said that they won’t go to Pakistan for the Asia Cup, which starts on August 31.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari of Pakistan was one of the foreign ministers who went to Goa, India, last month for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). He was the first high-level Pakistani leader to visit India in nine years.
The neighbors have been in three wars together and have had a number of skirmishes with the military in the past few years. Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons, and they both control parts of the contested Himalayan area of Kashmir, but both say it is theirs in full.
Pakistan’s foreign office said it was worried about the safety of its cricket team during the event and would tell the International Cricket Council and the Indian government about its worries.