Kh. Asif to attend SCO’s meeting in Beijing on April 24

F.P. Report

BEIJING: Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif will attend the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member countries, scheduled to be held in Beijing on April 24 (Tuesday).

This was announced by the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Hua Chunying at the weekly news briefing here on Wednesday.

On announcement said, “The Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be held in Beijing on April 24.

At the invitation of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj of India, Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan, Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldayev of Kyrgyzstan, Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif of Pakistan, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Foreign Minister Sirodjidin Aslov of Tajikistan, Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov of Uzbekistan, Secretary-General of the SCO Rashid Alimov and Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Yevgeniy Sysoyev will attend the meeting.

All parties will exchange views on the SCO cooperation in various areas and major international and regional issues. Foreign ministers of Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan will visit China while attending the meeting.

This is the first meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Member States after the enlargement of the SCO, which aims to lay the groundwork for the Qingdao Summit to be held in June.

During the meeting, the Chinese leadership will have a group meeting with the heads of delegations. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will chair the meeting.

Foreign ministers of the member states will exchange views on the SCO cooperation across the board and major international and regional issues, ink a series of outcome documents and issue the press communiqué on the basis of the consensus reached at the meeting.

China believes that all parties will take this meeting as an opportunity to build up more consensuses on cooperation, roll out more measures for cooperation, ensure that the Qingdao Summit can achieve fruitful outcomes and promote the greater development of the SCO.

It may be mentioned here that President Mamnoon Hussain will represent Pakistan at the SCO’s summit to be held in June.