E-Paper
Sign In
iPhone | iPad
Android
Tue, Oct 15, 2024 | Rabi al-Thani 12, 1446 | DXB
°C
Leaders arrive in locked-down Islamabad for Shanghai Cooperation gathering
This is the highest profile event hosted by Pakistan in years
- By
- Reuters
China's Premier Li Qiang (L) and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gesture after unveiling a plaque to mark the completion of New Gwadar International Airport during a ceremony at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad on October 14, 2024. — AFP
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Zhaparov landed in Islamabad on Tuesday to attend a heads-of-government gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Pakistani government said, with the city under tight security lockdown.
The meeting of the SCO, a Eurasian security and political group formed in 2001 by Russia and China, is the highest profile event hosted by the South Asian nation in years.
Recommended For You
Chinese Premiere Li Qiang is already in Pakistan, while seven more prime ministers of other member and observer states, including Russian Premier Mikhail Mishustin, will also be participating in person.
The event has garnered more attention with India sending External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in nearly a decade as relations remain frosty between the two nuclear powers.
Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday. Both sides have said no bilateral meeting is planned.
Indian government spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said this month the agenda of Jaishankar's visit would strictly follow the SCO schedule, which is due to discuss trade, humanitarian and social issues.
A worker installs Pakistan's national flag along a street leading to the venue of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Islamabad on October 15, 2024. — AFP
"The Indian foreign minister has not requested a bilateral meeting, nor have we extended an invitation to them," Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday.
Pakistan's former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was in Goa last year — also a rare visit — for an SCO meeting where he and Jaishankar were involved in a verbal spat.
Former Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj was the last to visit Pakistan in 2015, arriving for a summit on Afghanistan.
The SCO also includes Iran, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The prime ministers of Belarus and Mongolia are also attending.
While the main SCO meeting will take place on Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to host a welcome dinner for delegates on Tuesday. Pakistan's Foreign Office said Sharif will also hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines.
Army personnel patrol near the venue of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, in Islamabad on October 15, 2024. — AFP
The SCO meeting will discuss ongoing cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, the Foreign Office said. Observers believe the bloc seeks to counter Western influence in the region.
Pakistan's government has announced a three-day public holiday in Islamabad, with schools and businesses shut and large contingents of police and paramilitary forces deployed.
Pakistani army troops will be responsible for the security of the capital's Red Zone, the location of the parliament and a diplomatic enclave and where most of the SCO meetings will take place, according to the interior ministry.
The threat alert has been high in the South Asian nation ahead of the SCO summit, especially after the killing of two Chinese engineers on October 6 and shooting deaths of 21 miners on October 11.
Sign Up For Breaking News Alerts
Be in the know. Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
