LAHORE: As the leafy Islamabad braces up to host the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) amid extremely stringent security measures Tuesday (today), with Pakistan Army troops responsible for the security of the capital’s Red Zone.
The Indian Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, will be the first high-level leader of his country to visit Pakistan in nine years. As foreign secretary, Jaishankar, had accompanied the-then Indian Foreign Minister, (late) Sushma Swaraj, when she had visited Pakistan in 2015 for the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process talks.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang, is the first government head of his country to have arrived in Pakistan after 11 years, greeted with a 21-gun salute. His predecessor, Li Keqiang, had visited Pakistan in May 2013.
The 58-year-old Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, and Premiers from Belarus (Roman Golovchenko), Kazakhstan (Olzhas Bektenov), Kyrgyzstan (Zhaparov Akylbek), Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan (Abdulla Aripov) will be attending the 23rd SCO moot, along with Iran’s First Vice President (Mohammad Reza Aref) and India’s External Affairs Minister (Subrahmanyam Jaishankar).
The Russian premier will be the first government head of his country to touch the Pakistani soil after 17 years. In 2007, Mikhail Fradko, was the first Prime Minister of the Russian Federation to visit Pakistan to ink four bilateral accords in the areas of railways, narcotics control and culture exchanges.
In January 1966, President General Ayub Khan had toured Tashkent (then part of former Soviet Union) along with his Foreign Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, foreign secretary Aziz Ahmad and defence secretary Ghulam Ishaq Khan, for peace talks with Indian Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and signed the historic Tashkent Declaration.
In 1974, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had paid a tiring and lengthy state visit to Soviet Union, becoming the first Pakistani Prime Minister since 1947. In 1999, Premier Nawaz Sharif had landed in Moscow, the first Pakistani leader to do so after a gap of 25 years.
In February 2003, President Gen Pervez Musharraf had arrived in the Russian capital. Premier Imran Khan had visited Russia in February 2022, the first visit by a Pakistani premier in 23 years.
The last high-level interaction between Pakistan and Russia took place in Beijing on October 17, 2023, when Russian President, Vladimir Putin, had met Caretaker Pakistani Premier, Anwaarul Haq Kakar, on the sidelines of the Third Belt and Road Forum.
The Prime Minister of Mongolia (Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai) and Turkmenistan’s Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers (Rashid Meredov) will also be joining as special guests. Established by China and Russia 23 years ago, the Beijing-based Shanghai Cooperation Organisation covers approximately 24 per cent of the area of world and 42 per cent of the world population.
As of 2024, the combined nominal GDP of this nine-member group accounts for around 23 per cent of the net international output of goods and services. In June 2017, the SCO expanded to eight states, with Pakistan, India and Iran joining the group in July 2023, and Belarus in July 2024.
Other members include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The SCO Observers are Afghanistan and Mongolia, while its dialogue partners comprise Armenia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Maldives, Kuwait, Cambodia, Egypt, and Myanmar.
Previous SCO Summits of Heads of State were held at Shanghai, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Tashkent, Astana, Shanghai, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Russian city of Yekaterinburg, Tashkent, Astana, Beijing, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Russian town of Uta, Tashkent, Astana, Chinese city Qingdao, Bishkek, there was a video conference in 2020, Dushanbe, Samarkand, a video conference was held in 2023 and Astana.
The SCO Summits of Heads of Government were organised at Almaty, Beijing, Bishkek, Moscow, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Astana, Beijing, Dushanbe, Saint Petersburg, Bishkek, Tashkent, Astana, Zhengzhou, Bishkek, Sochi, Dushanbe, Tashkent, video conferences in 2020, 2021 and 2022, Bishkek and now Islamabad.
In September 2003, the heads of the SCO member states signed a 20-year Programme of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation. As a long-term goal, the programme provides for the establishment of a free trade zone within the territory under the SCO member states; while in the short run, it seeks to reinvigorate the process of creating favourable environment for trade and investment.
