BEIJING: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ Joint Session in Beijing, reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to strengthening its all-weather strategic partnership with China.
The high-level meeting took place at the Great Hall of the People, where President Xi welcomed delegates from SCO member states under China’s presidency of the regional bloc. The session focused on boosting multilateral cooperation, regional security, and mutual development across Eurasia.
Leading Pakistan’s delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), Dar conveyed warm greetings from Pakistan’s leadership and praised the enduring friendship between Islamabad and Beijing. In a post on social platform X, he shared his sentiments, stating, “As iron-clad brothers and all-weather strategic cooperative partners, we remain committed to deepening Pak-China enduring friendship and advancing shared regional goals.”Upon his arrival in Beijing, Dar was received by senior officials from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Khalil ur Rehman Hashmi.
The SCO, comprising 10 member nations including China, Russia, Pakistan, India, and Iran, is a vital platform for regional political and security cooperation. The CFM, the third-highest decision-making forum in the SCO, prepares key documents for consideration at the Council of Heads of State (CHS), which will take place in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, 2025.
Dar also held bilateral meetings with Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu and Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Minister Zheenbek Moldokanovic. The leaders reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to strengthening bilateral ties and expanding collaboration across diverse areas of mutual interest. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dar will continue holding bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other SCO member states during his stay in China.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday slammed last month’s attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran as “unacceptable” as he attended a ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in China’s Tianjin.
The SCO is a 10-nation Eurasian security and political grouping whose members include China, Russia, Pakistan, India, and Iran. The group’s foreign ministers meet as a precursor to the annual summit of its leaders, which will be hosted by China this autumn in Tianjin. On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Iran that targeted military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas, and killed senior military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. The attacks began days before a planned meeting between Tehran and Washington aimed at reviving nuclear negotiations. The US, which had been in talks with Iran since April 12, joined Israel in carrying out its own strikes on June 22, targeting Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. Iranian authorities say the Israeli strikes killed at least 1,060 people.
Addressing the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers today, Dar said: “We have strongly condemned the unjustified and illegitimate aggression by Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US strikes on its nuclear facilities. Such illegal actions directed against SCO member states are unacceptable.”
Continuing his criticism of Israel, he said: “Israel has shown a reckless disregard for international norms and humanity through its relentless and disproportionate use of force in Gaza, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of civilians causing the worst humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We call for immediate halt to Israel’s atrocities. The only viable remedy to Palestine dispute is the realisation of two-state solution which includes the establishment of Palestine as a viable, secure and contiguous state on the basis of pre-1967 borders with Al Quds as its capital. “Unilateral and illegal measures to change the status of disputed territories in violation of UN Security Council resolutions must be strongly condemned and opposed by all.” –Agencies
