FM Qureshi to attend SCO Council of Foreign Ministers moot in Kyrgyzstan

Shah Mehmood Qureshi will deliver remarks at the plenary session

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday departed for Kyrgyzstan to represent Islamabad at the Shanghai Cooperation Operation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, Radio Pakistan reported.

The two-day moot will be attended by foreign ministry officials of SCO member states to approve resolutions to be adopted by the council of heads of states at the SCO meeting scheduled to be held in June.

Qureshi will also present comments at the plenary session. He will also hold bilateral talks with participating foreign ministers and the secretary general of the SCO.

Pakistan, along with India, became a full SCO member in June 2017. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.



In March, a roundtable session on the “Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; Future Prospects and Regional Connectivity” was organised by the Center for Global and Strategic Studies (CGSS).

In the session, speakers stressed that the Eurasian political, economic and security alliance a pivotal organisation which promotes closer ties while Pakistan has a lot to offer to its member states.

The roundtable saw the participation of heads of think tanks from SCO member and observer states including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Centre for SCO Study Secretary-General Professor Sun Zhuangzhi, Moscow State Institute of International Relations’ Dr Leonid Gusev, Uzbekistan Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies (ISRS) chief Bakhtiyor Mustafayev, Kyrgystan National Institute for Strategic Studies Adviser to Director Seitzhan Apyshev, Belarusian State University Academic Affairs Unit’s Professor Elena Dostanko and Institute of Political and International Studies (IPIS)— Iran Senior Research Fellow Seyed Majid Ghafelehbashi.

The agenda of the discussion was the promotion of regional connectivity in terms of cooperation in trade, commerce and development initiatives, promotion of art and culture amongst the SCO members, enhancement of tourism, fostering people-to-people contact among member countries and seeing Pakistan as a success model in the fight against terrorism.