Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday described Pakistan's joining of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) as an "historic event" that would benefit the country politically, diplomatically and economically through interaction with the member states.
"Pakistan has been trying to become member of the SCO and we are pleased that we got this opportunity to become an observer, which will hopefully lead to full membership," he told reporters while flying back home after attending the SCO Summit in the Kazakhstan's capital Astana.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Valadimir Putin and leaders of the five Central Asian states attended the one-day moot.
Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Raza Atef and India's External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, whose countries were also given observer status along with Pakistan, also attended.
The Prime Minister said in the SCO Pakistan had now got a platform where it could interact with others and make them understand its point of view and remove misperceptions, if any, about the country.
"We want to tell the world that Pakistan is a peace-loving and developing country and desires to play an important role to the world and the region for peace and security," he added.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan was pleased that Iran and India had also joined the six-nation grouping that was established in 2001 to promote goals of peace, security and diplomatic and political co-operation in the region.
"The SCO has now become a very strategic part of the world, including Russian, China, Central Asia, South Asia and Iran, this is almost half of the world population and lot of the countries in this region had tremendous potential," he added.
Responding to a question, the Prime Minister said the region had never been looked upon as one entity and added, the platform of SCO would allow the countries to promote relations with each other and develop more co-operation in the political, diplomatic, security and economic areas and leverage the true potential of the region.
"We believe this is the time to change our thinking in terms of new paradigm - a new paradigm, which will encourage co-operation between Central Asia, South Asia, Russia and China and these regions," he added.
The Prime Minister noted strong economic growth in the region, which has an excellent source of human talent and natural and other resources with the quality of governance gradually improving.
The region, he added, was a great market and increasing co-operation and interaction would benefit all the member countries, making the entire area very self-reliant.
"We can create a lot of opportunities for every body and there is a win-win situation for all".
Aziz said he also had a chance to interact with the leaders of many of these countries in a formal and informal manner.
During his stay in Astana, the Prime Minister had formal and informal discussions with a host of leaders, Presidents of China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Russia, acting President of Kyrghzstan, First Vice President of Iran and the Indian External Affairs Minister.
"The discussions on the sidelines are really the strength of the conferences" the Prime Minister said and added that, in all the discussions, he noticed that there was a tremendous need for a better understanding in the face of lack of communication.
He said there was willingness on part of every member to make the SCO a success.
The Prime Minister said that during his discussion with all the leaders he told them that Pakistan is a country, which wants peace and development.
"Pakistan is committed to global security and fighting terrorism, Pakistan wants to settle any issue we have with our neighbours," he added.
The Prime Minister also informed these leaders about the ongoing peace dialogue with India and the need for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute for a lasting peace in the region.
He said Pakistan-India dialogue and the confidence building measures had created a very conducive atmosphere, and added, this would allow the two countries to address the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, so that it meets the requirements of Pakistan, India and the Kashmiri people.
The Prime Minister said extensive discussion on the proposed UN reforms were also held. He said Pakistan believes that UN reforms are essential but these should be done equitably and in a way that it does create more inequities in the system.
"We believe that it should be done on the principle of democracy," he said adding that he made Pakistan's position on the issue clear and there was a lot of support.
He said there were also talks of more openness of trade and investment and co-operation in science and technology and human development.
The Prime Minister said it was a good start for Pakistan and would be a turning point in its relations with Russia, Central Asia and rest of the region.
Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan had already very good and friendly relations with China and added that after getting observer status in SCO, Pakistan's relations with China would be further strengthened.
He said member countries also supported the vision of "enlightened moderation" by President Musharraf. He said there were Islamic countries in SCO, which were encouraging enlightened moderation and this would have opportunities for Pakistan to improve its relations with these countries.
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