Day 2 of SCO summit in Pak: S Jaishankar to attend talks on trade, economy

The second day of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting is set to begin.

At Pakistan’s Jinnah Convention Centre, where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will welcome leaders from across the region. The event will start with a group photograph, followed by Prime Minister Sharif’s opening remarks.

The session will feature the signing of several documents, after which Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming are expected to address the media. Following this, Prime Minister Sharif will host an official lunch.

Representatives from India, China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are attending the meeting, with Iran’s First Vice President and Mongolia’s Prime Minister also present. The Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan, attending as a special guest, will participate as well.

According to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, discussions will focus on economic cooperation, trade, environmental issues, and socio-cultural ties. The leaders are expected to make significant decisions to boost cooperation among SCO members and approve the organisation’s budget.

While External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be leading India’s delegation at the meeting, no bilateral talks between India and Pakistan are scheduled. Despite this, Jaishankar’s visit has drawn attention from both the government and opposition parties in Pakistan.

Muhammad Ali Saif, an advisor to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), invited Jaishankar to witness an anti-government protest being held in Islamabad. Saif said, “We would also invite Jaishankar to address our protest and see for himself how strong Pakistan’s democracy is,” news agency PTI reported.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s former interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said that India-Pakistan relations aren’t overshadowing the event, instead they are “contributing towards multilateral engagement”.

“India is one of the responsible, important players on this forum, and it is diversified engagement which Pakistan is looking for,” he said.

He on Tuesday stated that there is a “deep appetite” in the country to see improvement in diplomatic ties with India.