ISLAMABAD – Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indiancounterpart Sushma Swaraj held an informal meeting on the sidelines of aShanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on Wednesday.
Qureshi said: “Today [I] met Sushma Ji. She had a complaint that wesometimes talk in a bitter manner. She brought sweets today so we couldspeak sweetly.”
The Foreign Office quoted the FM as saying: “We made it clear to her thatwe want all the matters resolved through dialogue, and that PM Imran Khanhad said in his very first speech that if India takes one step forward, wewould take two steps forward. Even today we are ready for talks.”
The Sushma-Qureshi meeting came at the end of two-day SCO Council ofForeign Ministers’ meeting in Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek. They werescheduled to meet in New York in September but New Delhi cancelled themeeting, citing ‘unclean intentions’ on Pakistan’s side as the reason.
Earlier in his address at the plenary session, Qureshi Shah linkedPakistan’s future with shared Pan-Asian prosperity and called for aninstitutional framework to meet common challenges – mainly terrorism,poverty and economy. He continued: “Enduring peace and prosperity in SouthAsia will remain elusive without good-faith diplomacy and result-orienteddialogue.READ MORE: UK PM May expected to declare resignation on Friday amid Brexitstall: Reportslink
“South Asia, as part and parcel of SCO, lagged behind other regions interms of regional cooperation, economic integration and connectivity thatresulted in formidable challenges including poverty, illiteracy anddisease.”
He added: “Pakistan has initiated work on Kartarpur Corridor to facilitateSikh pilgrims. The Shanghai Spirit was being reinforced through theKartarpur Spirit.”
The FM presented a seven-point agenda focusing on confidence-buildingmeasures among member states including control on weapon race,establishment of joint fund and international framework to combatcorruption and crime. He stressed the need for evolving a comprehensiveinternational framework to fight white-collar crime. He said leveragingSCO’s institutional capacity could synergise various connectivityinitiatives including Belt and Road Initiative, Economic CooperationOrganization, and Eurasian Economic Union.
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He suggested strengthening the SCO Youth Council to promote culturalunderstanding and said Pakistan looked forward to joining the council soon.The FM said that as the leadership of SCO member states would meet in June,there was a need to discuss the challenges confronting sustainable growth,environment and collective security.
He said that SCO region representing 42 percent of humanity, 23 percent ofworld’s land mass, and 22 percent of global nominal gross domestic productwas imbued with the ‘Shanghai Spirit’, aiming the way forward.
Qureshi said Pakistan was a product of centuries of amalgamation of foreignand local influences along with other SCO states that had been epicentersof civilisation.
He highlighted the fast-reaching fruition in shape of the transformationalCPEC and said the geography of SCO region provided an opportunity for air,land and sea links connecting South with Central Asia, Middle East withChina, Europe with the Far East, and Eurasia with the Sea. He said Pakistancondemned it in all forms and lauded the cooperation under THE SCO RegionalAnti Terrorist Structure. He listed Pakistan’s feats in war on terror.
FM Qureshi also met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of thesummit and exchanged views on bilateral relations, security situation inthe region and other important issues.
Chinese foreign minister was of the view that success of this forum wasevident of international community’s confidence in China’s policies. SCOSecretary General Vladimir Norov in his speech highlighted the objectivesof the summit.
