ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has expressed an interest in developing priority areas within the country as it sought to consolidate its role in the eight-member regional bloc, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
This was expressed during a meeting between Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and SCO Secretary General Ambassador Zhang Ming at the Foreign Office.
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The foreign minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to the purposes and principles of the SCO Charter and the ‘Shanghai Spirit.’
He assured Ming of Pakistan’s active support in taking forward SCO’s development cooperation agenda.
The foreign minister highlighted the potential of the SCO region and stated that it was their collective responsibility to work together in harnessing this potential effectively for the sustained progress and prosperity of the SCO region as a whole.
Discussing the comprehensive and diverse socio-economic cooperation matrix of SCO, the foreign minister underlined Pakistan’s interest in key priority areas of connectivity and transport; food security; innovation and technology exchange, trade and economy, including e-commerce; start-ups and digital literacy; youth empowerment, etc.
He also highlighted Pakistan’s potential as a trans-shipment and trade hub for SCO countries and reiterated Pakistan’s keenness to play an active and constructive role in further strengthening SCO.
Both sides exchanged views on the modernization of working mechanisms of SCO as well as the further expansion of the organization.
Bilawal reassured Ming that Pakistan will support the reform process.
