SCO meeting in India: Pakistan’s participation reflects commitment towards regional cooperation, says FO

ISLAMABAD: Brushing aside all criticism coming from within and outside of the country, Pakistan has decided to attend the meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers on May 04 in the Indian city of Goa.

It was stated by Foreign Office’s spokesperson during a weekly press briefing on Friday.

“Our decision to participate in the SCO meeting reflects our engagement with the organization in a positive and constructive spirit. We expect other SCO member states to demonstrate a similarly constructive approach,” said the FO spokesperson.

Responding to the criticism coming from India and within Pakistan on the eve of Foreign Minister Bilawal’s visit, she reiterated that the visit was in the context of SCO. “This is not a bilateral visit of foreign minister of Pakistan to India. This visit is taking place because Pakistan is an active member of SCO and the foreign minister has to represent Pakistan in the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting. We have every confidence that our Kashmiri brothers and sisters would understand the reason why this visit is taking place. Any activities of foreign minister during his visit to Goa will be in the context of SCO,” she added. The spokesperson chose to ignore criticism concerning the visit, saying it was just a noise and has no bearing on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its proceedings.

To a question why as a member SCO state and host of the meeting, India was creating so much negativity about Pakistan’s FM visit, she responded, “We cannot speak on someone else’s behavior but such negative sentiments cannot dissuade Pakistan from playing its part as an equal member of the organization. We hope that all members of SCO would see the positive spirit with which Pakistan is going to participate in the meeting.”

The spokesperson stressed that Pakistan would continue to raise its voice against grave and systematic human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K). She said last week around 40 individuals, including women, were arbitrarily arrested in the so-called cordon-and-search operations.

To a question about Sudan, she said on Friday morning an aircraft carrying 149 Pakistani nationals evacuated from Sudan arrived in Karachi. Two other flights carrying around 200 Pakistanis were expected to arrive soon. One of them originated from Port Sudan and the other from Jeddah to bring back Pakistanis who had earlier been evacuated there.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister and PPP leader Shazia Marri said the PTI and BJP are on same page regarding FM Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s visit to India. “The PTI lacks basic knowledge of foreign policy issues,” she said while responding to PTI’s criticism on Bilawal’s upcoming visit to India. “Bilawal’s participation in this conference is in the larger interest of our country, and his address to this conference would be a historic moment.” In a latest development, PM’s Special Assistant on Defence Affairs, Malik Ahmed Khan, attended the meeting of SCO Council of Defence Ministers on behalf of Defence Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif on Friday. According to Foreign Office, Pakistan’s participation in the meeting reflects the country’s commitment to strong regional cooperation.