Bilawal leaves for Tashkent today to attend SCO-CFM meet

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Foreign Affairs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari leaves today (Thursday) for two-day Tashkent SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (SCO-CFM) meeting.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, along with other seven SCO foreign ministers, will approve the decisions and documents to be presented to the heads of the state at the SCO Summit in Samarkand in September 2022.

“Pakistan views SCO as an important trans-regional multilateral forum for further enhancement of deep-rooted historical and cultural links with member states, providing these ties a sound economic foundation, and promoting Pakistan as a regional trade and transit corridor,” said the Spokesman at the Foreign Office. Besides Pakistan, SCO member states include China, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

This will probably be the first time that Bilawal will be sitting across the table with Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. India will take the SCO Chair from Uzbekistan, at the Samarkand summit in September this year.

All eyes will be on Bilawal and Jaishankar whether they meet or greet, or if they hold an informal chat.

”The invitation to attend the SCO-CFM was extended by the acting Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov. In the CFM meeting, the SCO foreign ministers would deliberate upon important regional and international issues as well,” announced the Foreign Office.

The foreign minister will also hold bilateral meetings with a number of his counterparts from the SCO member states on the sidelines, but bilateral talks with India are unlikely so far.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar while participating virtually in the 29th of the Developing-Eight (D-8) Council of Ministers Meeting, called for creating a Private Sector Coordination Facility to boost economic cooperation amongst the D-8 countries.

Bangladesh hosted the virtual session.

The foreign minister of Bangladesh, in his capacity as the chair of the council of ministers, presided over the meeting. Foreign Ministers of Türkiye and Iran, and Minister of State of Nigeria, alongside senior officials from Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia, also participated in the meeting.

The D-8 Group, established in Istanbul on 15 June 1997, includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Türkiye.

The minister of state called for creating an environment conducive for trade through facilitative legal frameworks, and equal opportunities for investment and business. She underscored that Pakistan’s vision of geo-economics has socio-economic growth, connectivity, and development at its core.

“Through cooperation and partnerships, the D-8 countries can realise their true economic potential. Pakistan’s location afforded critical overland and maritime connectivity to key regions of Asia – Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and China – that made Pakistan geo-politically pivotal state in the world. We were confident that through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), this geo-political asset will rapidly turn into a geo-economic dividend,” remarked Ms Khar.

The council meeting was preceded by the 45th session of the D-8 commission, which adopted a series of major decisions. One of the key decisions taken by the Council was to fully operationalise the Preferential Trade Agreement by 31 October 2022 with a view to achieving the intra-D-8 trade target of $500 billion agreed under the Decennial Road Map 2020-30. The meeting accepted a request from Azerbaijan to join the D-8.