ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will lead the Pakistani delegation in the 17th SCO Heads of Government Council meeting to be held in Tajikistan’s Capital Dushanbe on October 11-12, 2018.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi will leave for Tajikistan on Thursday (tomorrow) for a two days visit to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting.
The top on the agenda of the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting will be trade and economic cooperation, regional economic and trade contacts, and humanitarian and cultural projects within the framework of the Organization.
17th SCO Heads of Government Council meeting expected to approve organization’s budget for 2019
The Heads of government of SCO member states are expected to approve the organization’s budget for 2019 and discuss a wide range of multilateral cooperation issues.
The eight-member SCO was formed in June 2001 in Shanghai. Earlier, its members included China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. However in June 2017, at its Astana Summit, Pakistan and India were also granted its full membership.
In an interview with Sputnik on October 2, the SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov said that “The heads of governments’ discussion will have a primary focus on the implementation of the tasks which the SCO heads of states had set.”
Shah Mahmood Qureshi is also expected to hold bilteral meeting with the heads of SCO member State including the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the sidelines. However his meeting with the Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj is unlikely.
