UFA: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Friday called for a strong regional collective response to confront the challenges of extremism, terrorism and drug-trafficking.
While addressing the 15th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, the Prime Minister said that the region faces a volatile geopolitical environment and Pakistan’s objectives of curbing extremism and enhancing border security were in line with those of the SCO. He said that the SCO provides a useful forum to Pakistan in promoting peace and stability in South Asia, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
“Cordial and mutually beneficial economic relations with SCO member-states will be our foreign policy priority,” the Prime Minister said. “We believe that regional stability is the key to economic progress of nations,” he said, adding that peace in Afghanistan and Central Asia was crucial to regional connectivity and trade cooperation.
He said that the SCO has major strengths of its own. The basic principles of its charter were sovereign equality of states, territorial integrity and mutual cooperation and security. “The spirit of SCO abhors hegemony and coercion in international affairs. It has a consensus based decision-making process, which instills confidence in its members.”
The Prime Minister said the SCO partners have an ambitious agenda to achieve and called for ensuring regional stability and further economic integration to realize these goals. “We must work together to mitigate differences, resolve outstanding disputes and create a favourable environment for the betterment of our peoples.” “This is how the true Shanghai Spirit would be fully realized,” he said.
The Prime Minister termed India and Pakistan’s inclusion into the ambit of the grouping as a “turning point in the history of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation”. “I am honoured to represent my country at this prestigious forum and am confident that SCO’s expansion would prove a watershed in the changing geopolitical landscape of the Eurasian belt,” the Prime Minister said.
Nawaz calls for strong collective response to confront terrorism
