ISLAMABAD: The top leaders from Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states especially those of China, Russia, Iran and India showed up at a dinner thrown by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in their honour on Tuesday following the beginning of an all-important diplomatic moot.
The scrumptious fiesta was highlighted with the presence of none other than the neighbouring top diplomatic czar – Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar – who had brief encountering engagement with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The two leaders exchanged pleasantries and shook hands before the attendees headed to attend the dinner hosted in honour of the SCO leaders by Prime Minister Sharif at PM House.
SCO sidelines: PM Shehbaz holds bilateral meetings with member states
Jaishankar is in Islamabad to attend the SCO summit, marking the first visit by someone holding this office to the neighbouring nation in nearly nine years.
It has been nearly a decade since a foreign minister from Pakistan’s arch-rival India visited as relations remain frosty between the two nuclear powers.
Both Pakistan and India have already said that no bilateral meeting would be held during the SCO summit.
At the same time, the visit of the Indian top diplomat comes at a time when controversial Indian cleric Dr Zakir Naik, who has been declared a wanted fugitive by India on charges of terror financing, hate speech, inciting communal hatred, and money laundering, is visiting Pakistan as a state guest.
Earlier in the day on the sidelines of SCO summit, Prime Minister Sharif called for multilateral collaboration by strengthening economic, security and diplomatic ties among SCO member states as he held meetings with the visiting delegates including seven prime ministers, a vice president, and a foreign minister.
During his meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, Sharif felicitated Belarus on becoming SCO’s full member and reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to working closely with Belarus in fostering the “Shanghai Spirit”.
Golovchenko assured that Belarus would closely collaborate with Pakistan, in its capacity as SCO CHG Chair, to promote the organisation’s purposes, principles and priorities.
He expressed satisfaction over the positive direction of bilateral relationship between the two countries and reciprocated Pakistan’s desire to further strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation across all spheres of shared interest through joint efforts.
During his bilateral meeting with Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic Akylbek Japarov, Prime Minister Sharif reiterated Pakistan’s strong desire to further strengthen cooperation with Kyrgyz Republic, and stressed the need to enhance new avenues of collaboration in the areas of trade, investment, people-to-people contacts and regional connectivity.
Japarov reciprocated Kyrgyz Republic’s strong desire to continue working with Pakistan for enhancing bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual benefit for the two countries.
During his meeting with, deputy chairman of Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, Prime Minister Sharif emphasised upon the need to increase high-level exchanges between Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
He stressed the importance of both sides continuing to work closely to realise the full potential of bilateral cooperation, particularly in the domains of trade, energy and connectivity.
Meredov reaffirmed Turkmenistan’s unwavering commitment to building stronger and closer Pakistan-Turkmenistan ties.
Prime Minister Sharif, while noting the warm bilateral relations between Pakistan and Kazakhstan, emphasised the need to enhance trade and investment, while also focusing on regional connectivity and security. To achieve this shared objective, he emphasised the need to maintain regular and high-level contacts, including through institutional mechanisms of bilateral engagement.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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