By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said Pakistan would always be a strong partner in all endeavours of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) aimed at promoting collective good of the region.
Addressing the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, he said SCO’s contributions to regional security and stability as well as to the shaping of economic and information environment would continue to grow.
Vladimir Norov, Acting Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, the foreign ministers of SCO member states, the Secretary General of SCO and Director SCO-RATS.
Bilawal reaffirmed Pakistan’s unflinching commitment to the goals and principles of the SCO Charter and the “Shanghai Spirit.”
He mentioned that SCO was a formidable trans-regional, multilateral Organization – representing 41 percent of global population, 22 percent of world’s landmass, and 23 percent of global GDP.
He said the world was facing planet, today, is facing an existential threat in the shape of climate change.
The foreign minister said the overall economic, social and psychological impact of Covid-19 pandemic was yet to be fully grasped, let alone mitigated.
He mentioned the re-emergence of military conflict in different parts of the world and unprecedented hike of fuel and food prices as challenges taking a heavy toll on nations and citizens across the globe.
He said Pakistan believed that the best course in these turbulent times was to renew faith in the time-honoured principles of inter-state relations and to reinforce the resilience of institutions.
“The centrality of the principles of non-use or threat of use of force, respect for sovereignty and territory integrity, pacific settlement of disputes, and equal security for all, cannot be stressed enough,” he said.
