Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif to visit Uzbekistan to attend SCO Summit this week: FO

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Uzbekistan this week to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit where leaders from the member states will deliberate on important global and regional issues, the Foreign Office said on Tuesday.

The summit - being held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15-16 - will be attended by the leaders of SCO Members and Observer States as well as heads of SCO organizations and other special guests, it said.

At the forthcoming summit, the SCO leaders will deliberate on important global and regional issues, including climate change, food security, energy security, and sustainable supply chains. They would also approve agreements and documents that would chart the future direction of cooperation among SCO member states, the FO said.

Besides attending the summit, Prime Minister Sharif would hold bilateral meetings with other participating leaders on the sidelines of the two-day event, the FO said.

The Beijing-headquartered SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to attend the two-day meeting.

Collectively, the SCO member states represent nearly half of the world's population and a quarter of global economic output.

SCO's agenda of promoting peace and stability, and seeking enhanced linkages in infrastructure, economic, trade and cultural spheres, is aligned with Pakistan’s own vision for enhancing economic connectivity as well as peace and stability in the region, the FO said.

Since becoming a full member of SCO in 2017, Pakistan has been actively contributing towards advancing the Organization’s core objectives through its participation in various SCO mechanisms, it added.

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