SCO Secretary General to pay two-day visit of Pakistan on July 21-22

Beijing: Secretary General of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Zhang Ming will pay a two-day visit of Pakistan on July 21-22.

“I plan to visit Pakistan and India before going to Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, for foreign ministers meeting by end of this month,” the secretary general told media after a visit of five member-states of the SCO.

He said the relevant arrangements for his meetings with the Pakistani leadership are underway.

Zhang Ming shared the outcome of his visits to SCO member states and said that he hoped to listen to views of all members states on current international situation on how to promote regional and international peace and development and how to advance SCO development.

To a question about the SCO summit likely to be held in Samarkand in Uzbekistan on September 15-16 this year, he said, the eight member-states have confirmed that their leaders will take part in the summit.

He said that it is yet to decide the format of the meetings as the Covid-19 pandemic has not finished and is still spreading in different countries.

The secretary general however said that all the member-states are in favour of traditional format.

He said, at a summit in Dushanbe last September the SCO members signed a document on cooperation envisaging the launch of the procedure for granting SCO membership to Iran.

He confirmed that Belarus has officially applied to enter the organization as a full-fledged member and added, all the necessary procedures for this will begin soon.

Belarus still has observer status in this international organization, enabling the country to take part in meetings of the SCO Council of Heads of Government, as well as ministerial meetings on foreign economic and foreign trade activities.

He informed that the SCO member states are considering several initiatives to promote tourism to enhance people to people contacts once the Covid travel restriction eases.

The SCO members have rich resources with respect to tourism which should be explored, he added.

Established in Shanghai in June 2001, the SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organization. It now comprises Russia, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.