SCO summit big achievement of Pakistan's foreign policy: FO spokesperson

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that she said organising the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Pakistan is a big achievement of foreign policy.

Speaking to a private news channel, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is playing a vital role for strengthening regional connectivity.

She said that Pakistan strongly desires to continue work for regional connectivity.

Through SCO, she said, Pakistan will have a discussion with leaders of Central Asian States to enhance relations on trade, energy, and railway sectors, which would further promote regional connectivity.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that talks are being held with Turkiye to link up roads with the Railways.

The two-day 23rd meeting of the Council of the Heads of Government (CHG) of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) commenced in Islamabad on Tuesday

The delegates from members and other invited states started arriving in the federal capital, where stringent security measures are in place.

To be held at the Jinnah Convention Center, the annual meeting of the SCO CHG – the second highest forum within the SCO – will be chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the current chair of the Council.

Pakistan had assumed the rotating chair of the SCO CHG for 2023-24 at the previous meeting held in Bishkek on October 26, 2023.

Who’s attending the summit?

The leaders from the SCO member states attending the summit include China’s Premier of the State Council Li Qiang, Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Tajik Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Kyrgyzstan’s Chairman of Ministers’ Cabinet Zhaparov Akylbek, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.