- Hua says Islamabad, Delhi will strictly follow idea of good neighbourliness
China on Thursday hoped that Pakistan and India, after becoming the full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) during the upcoming Astana Summit, would strictly follow the idea of good neighbourliness and improve their bilateral relations by upholding the Shanghai spirit.
“We hope Pakistan and India will strictly follow the charter of SCO and the idea of good neighbourliness, uphold the Shanghai spirit to improve their relations and inject new impetus to the development of the organisation,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying said during her regular press briefing here.
She said that both Pakistan and India would complete the process of becoming full members of the SCO making it the world’s most populous and largest regional cooperative organisation, which would bring unprecedented development capacity and cooperation potential. “Now, the SCO will complete the first membership expansion since its establishment and it will become a regional organisation with the largest coverage and involving the biggest population,” she said while responding to question.
About the completion of the membership process, she said that in the SCO summit held at Ufa in Russia, the member countries of the SCO had launched the process to accept membership of Pakistan and India. “Now, the SCO members are accelerating the legal process on the implementation of a memorandum of understanding in this regard and everything is going smoothly,” she said. Hua hoped that Pakistan and India would be full members at the Astana Summit, to be held this month.
“We also expect the Astana Summit will fulfill the admission procedures of the two countries.” The SCO summit is likely to be held this month in Kazakhstan when welcoming its seventh and eighth member nations would be a key item on the agenda. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the SCO Charter and the 10th anniversary of the signing of the treaty on long-term good-neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation by SCO members. China will take over the SCO rotating presidency after the Astana summit.
