{"id":24683,"date":"2024-10-15T09:54:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T09:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=24683"},"modified":"2024-10-15T09:58:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T09:58:52","slug":"leaders-arrive-in-islamabad-for-sco-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2024\/10\/leaders-arrive-in-islamabad-for-sco-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders arrive in Islamabad for SCO talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Zhaparov landed in Islamabad on Tuesday to attend a heads-of-government gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Pakistani government said, with the city under tight security lockdown.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The meeting of the SCO, a Eurasian security and political group formed in 2001 by Russia and China, is the highest profile event hosted by the troubled South Asian nation in years.<\/p>\n

Chinese Premiere Li Qiang is already in Pakistan, while seven more prime ministers of other member and observer states, including Russian Premier Mikhail Mishustin, will also be participating in person.<\/p>\n

The event has garnered more attention with India, Pakistan’s neighbour and arch-rival, sending External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in nearly a decade as relations remain frosty between the two nuclear powers.<\/p>\n

The SCO also includes Iran, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Prime Ministers of Belarus and Mongolia are also attending.<\/p>\n

While the main SCO meeting will take place on Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to host a welcome dinner for delegates on Tuesday. Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Sharif will also hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

The SCO meeting will discuss ongoing cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said. Observers believe the bloc seeks to counter Western influence in the region.<\/p>\n

Pakistan’s government has announced a three-day public holiday in Islamabad, with schools and businesses shut and large contingents of police and paramilitary forces deployed.<\/p>\n

Pakistani army troops will be responsible for the security of the capital’s Red Zone, the location of the parliament and a diplomatic enclave and where most of the SCO meetings will take place, according to the interior ministry.<\/p>\n

The SCO leaders are expected to discuss cooperation in environmental, cultural, and social areas over the two-day summit. Other agenda items will include a review of the SCO\u2019s annual performance and budget approval.<\/p>\n

Previously, Afghanistan attended SCO meetings as an observer before the rise of the Islamic Emirate; however, in the past three years, the organization has not invited representatives from the de-facto government.<\/p>\n

According to Pakistan\u2019s Geo News, Afghanistan has not been invited to the 23rd SCO summit.<\/p>\n

Hamdullah Fetrat, a deputy spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, asserts that Afghanistan is still an observer member of the SCO and maintains good relations with its member countries.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Zhaparov landed in Islamabad on Tuesday to attend a heads-of-government gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Pakistani government said, with the city under tight security lockdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":24684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,984,372,976,8,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-region","category-politics","category-governance","category-afghanistan","category-headline"],"views":75,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24687,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24683\/revisions\/24687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}