President Asif Ali Zardari will represent Pakistan at the 10th summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on June 15 (tomorrow) and would seek Pakistan’s full membership of the regional organization. He would be arriving in in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
President Zardari will address the summit as SCO leaders will take up issues related to regional and global peace and security and cooperation in economic development. The leaders will devise a joint strategy in tackling challenges of terrorism, extremism, organized crime and narcotics.
Pakistan has status of an observer in SCO and President Zardari will be seeking his country’s full membership of the regional organization. In a statement, the Foreign Office Spokesperson said, “President Asif Ali Zardari’s participation signals the importance Pakistan attaches to the SCO and our keen interest in working the regional development agenda which includes building commerce and trade facilities, banking cooperation, energy transaction and corporate sector interactions.”
SCO founded in 2001 in Shanghai comprises member states of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia have observer status, while Belarus and Sri lanka are ranked as dialogue partners. Mongolia received observer status in 2001 while Pakistan, India and Iran became observers in 2002 and Belarus and Sri Lanka were granted dialogue partner status in 2009.
President Zardari is expected to hold bilateral meetings with leaders of the SCO on the sidelines of the summit.
Pakistan, Iran and India have applied for the full membership of the regional grouping and that has been discussed within the organization. Afghanistan’s application for observer status is being studied and will also be discussed at the upcoming summit.
