Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday raised the issue of terrorism as a major concern for member states at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and called for “meaningful” engagement with the Afghan Taliban government.
PM Shahbaz arrived in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana on Wednesday for a two-day official visit, representing Pakistan at the SCO meetings where leaders and diplomats from countries including China, India, Turkiye, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan have gathered to discuss economic and security cooperation.
During his official speech on Thursday, the prime minister emphasised the importance of maintaining peace in the region as a precondition for economic development.
“Achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan is a lynchpin to this common objective,” he said. “The international community must meaningfully engage with the Afghan government to meet their genuine economic and development needs.”
As for the Afghan government’s part, he said that they had to “take concrete measures” to ensure its soil is not used for terrorism against any other state.
“Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including state terrorism, must be condemned in clear and unambiguous terms,” PM Shehbaz stressed, adding that there was “no justification for killing innocent people or using the bogey of terrorism” for political point-scoring.
He also touched on the topic of globalisation and highlighted that leaders had the responsibility to rise above partisan geopolitics and join hands to secure a prosperous future for the people.
Regarding Pakistan’s role in regional trade connectivity, the premier said that the country’s location made it an “ideal trade conduit” for the region, adding that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) supplemented “SCO’s vision of regional connectivity and economic interaction”.
PM Shehbaz also advocated for promoting national currencies for mutual settlements within the region to avoid global financial shocks, adding that alternative funding mechanisms would give impetus to different development projects in the SCO region.
The prime minister added that Pakistan would do “its utmost to provide impetus to collective efforts to raise living standards in the SCO region” while talking about the rise in political and military conflicts across the globe and consequent hike in food and fuel prices which have “seriously affected members’ ability to address poverty”.
On Wednesday, in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the premier called for overcoming financial and banking issues between the two countries by renewing and expanding trade under a barter system.
Speaking during their meeting on the sidelines of the summit, PM Shehbaz recalled how Pakistan and Russia used to have a bilateral trade and a barter system in the 1950s and 1960s.
“I think today is the time we can overcome financial and other banking issues by renewing our trade and expanding our trade under a barter,” PM Shehbaz told President Putin. “That will be very beneficial to Pakistan and we will able to overcome many problems.”
In his remarks, President Putin said Pakistan and Russia enjoyed cordial relations which had improved due to the trade linkages.
Putin said both countries could enhance their cooperation in energy and agriculture and expressed his readiness to promote cooperation with Pakistan in the field of food security.
Meanwhile, PM Shehbaz also proposed to establish tripartite institutional mechanisms, particularly in economic and investment areas to strengthen Pakistan-Turkiye-Azerbaijan economic and commercial cooperation.
Sharing his views during an inaugural session of the Pakistan-Turkiye-Azerbaijan Trilateral Summit held on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, he underscored that Pakistan deeply valued its fraternal ties with Azerbaijan and Turkiye based on mutual respect and support for each other on core issues.
