Prime Minister Shahbaz will participate in the SCO meeting on July 4 via virtual medium

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting on July 4 through virtual medium at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry made this announcement on Friday. Sharif’s participation in the summit reflects the high importance Pakistan attaches to the SCO, which is an important forum for regional security, prosperity and enhancing engagement with the region, a statement said. It said, “Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will participate in the 23rd meeting of the Heads of State of the SCO which will be held through video conference on July 4, 2023.” The Prime Minister of Pakistan has been invited to attend the meeting.

In this meeting, important global and regional issues will be discussed and to decide the future direction of cooperation among the member states of SCO. Iran will also be welcomed as a new member of the organization this year. The SCO was founded in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan at a summit held in Shanghai. The responsibility of presiding over the SCO goes to its member states on a rotational basis. Its chairmanship was handed over to India at the Samarkand Summit held on 16 September last year. The Ministry of External Affairs announced in May that India would host the SCO summit on July 4 through a virtual medium.

Earlier in May, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari participated in the important multilateral meeting of SCO in Goa. Bhutto Zardari is the first Pakistani Foreign Minister to visit India since Hina Rabbani Khar’s visit to India in July 2011. Relations between the two countries came under severe strain after Indian Air Force fighter jets struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack. In the same year, relations between the two countries further deteriorated after the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir was withdrawn and the state was divided into two union territories.

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