China expects Pakistan, India to improve ties through SCO

BEIJING: China Thursday hoped that Pakistan and India, after becoming full members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) during upcoming Astana Summit on June 8-9, would utilise the platform to improve their bilateral relations.

“We hope Pakistan and India will strictly follow the charter of SCO and the idea of good neighborliness, uphold the Shanghai spirit to improve their relations and inject new impetus to the development of SCO,” Spokesperson for Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying said during her regular press briefing here.

She said that both Pakistan and India would complete process of becoming full members of the SCO making it the world’s most populous and largest regional cooperative organisation, which would bring unprecedented development, capacity and cooperation.

“Now, the SCO will complete the first membership expansion since its establishment and it will become a regional organisation with largest coverage and involving the biggest population,” she said while responding to question.

About the completion of membership process, she informed that in the SCO Summit held at Ufa, Russia, the member countries of the SCO had launched the process to accept membership of Pakistan and India.

“Now, the members of the SCO are accelerating the legal process on implementation of a memorandum of understanding in this regard and everything is going smoothly,” she added. Hua Chunying hoped that India and Pakistan would be full members at Astana Summit to be held this month, adding, “We also expect the Astana Summit will fulfill the admission procedures of the two countries.”

The SCO summit is likely to be held this month in Astana, Kazakhstan when welcoming its seventh and eighth member nations would be a key item on the agenda. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the SCO Charter and the 10th anniversary of the signing of the treaty on long-term good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation by SCO members. China will take over the SCO rotating presidency after the Astana summit.