Tashkent, 29 July 2022 (TDI): The Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, addressed the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Tashkent on Friday.
🟢 FM @BBhuttoZardari is addressing the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers in #Tashkent. #Pakistan accords unflinching commitment to the goals and spirit of SCO charter and the ‘Shanghai Spirit’. #PakFMAtSCO pic.twitter.com/16OIisxwse
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) July 29, 2022
The Prime Minister of Pakistan arrived in Tashkent on Thursday. He led the delegation of Pakistan to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting on 28-29 July 2022.
In his address, the Foreign Minister said:
Excellency, Vladimir Norov, Acting Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan,
Excellencies, Foreign Ministers of SCO Member states,
Secretary General of SCO
It is a pleasure to be in the beautiful and historic city of Tashkent. We are grateful for the warm reception and gracious Uzbek hospitality.
I thank Foreign Minister Norov for the excellent arrangements made for the conference. I am confident that under his wise stewardship, our deliberations would be fruitful and productive.
I take this opportunity to felicitate our new Secretary General, His Excellency Zhang Ming, and assure him of Pakistan’s full support in the discharge of his important mission.
I also reaffirm Pakistan’s unflinching commitment to the goals and principles of the SCO Charter and the “Shanghai Spirit.”
Since its beginning in Shanghai in June 2001, SCO has travelled a long distance.
Today, SCO is a formidable trans-regional, multilateral Organization – representing 41% of global population, 22% of world’s landmass, and 23% of global GDP.
An impressive edifice of normative and standard-setting documents has been built.
A comprehensive framework of practical cooperation for security and socio-economic development has been crafted and operationalized.
SCO’s contributions to regional security and stability as well as to the shaping of economic and information environment continue to grow.
As we look back at SCO’s evolution with gratification, we must be cognizant of the daunting challenges ahead.
Our planet, today, is facing an existential threat in the shape of climate change.
The overall economic, social and psychological impact of Covid-19 pandemic is yet to be fully grasped, let alone mitigated.
The re-emergence of military conflict in different parts of the world has accentuated the fragility of the international economic and financial situation.
The unprecedented fuel and food prices are taking a heavy toll on nations and citizens across the globe.
To top it all, a drift towards bloc politics is discernible – deepening geo-strategic tensions and heralding a possible return to a cold war.
Pakistan believes that the best course in these turbulent times is to renew our faith in the time-honoured principles of inter-state relations and to reinforce the resilience of our 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.
Our own Charter emphasizes good neighborliness, unity and cooperation between states and their peoples.
It is our considered view that peaceful coexistence and cooperation – and not confrontation – must be the key drivers of global politics.
In the regional context, what happens in Afghanistan is important for each of us as neighbors, friends and brothers to the Afghan people.
The events of 15 August 2021 have led to a transformed reality.
After 40 years of conflict and instability, there is finally a prospect of forging sustainable peace and stability in Afghanistan.
We acknowledge the steps taken to improve the security environment and fight the terrorist threat from Daesh.
In the wake of twin humanitarian and economic crises, we strongly advocate provision of increased assistance to the Afghan people and measures to help build a sustainable Afghan economy.
Pakistan has extended humanitarian relief assistance and continues to open up avenues for more trade, transit trade, cross-border facilitation, and connectivity.
We believe it is equally important to defreeze Afghanistan’s financial assets.
In our view, the international community must also maintain constructive engagement and practical cooperation with Afghanistan.
The Afghan interim authorities, for their part, should take steps to address the international community’s expectations about inclusivity; respect for the rights of all Afghans, including girls’ education; and effective counter-terrorism actions.
The SCO Afghanistan Contact Group is a useful platform that can also be utilized for enhanced outreach. Approaches can be synergized through consultations.
For its part, Pakistan will remain strongly committed to a peaceful, stable, sovereign, prosperous and connected Afghanistan and work with international partners to advance our shared objectives.
Terrorism is one of the major threats that the international community continues to face. Our valiant people, armed forces, and law enforcement personnel have made tremendous sacrifices in Pakistan’s determined fight to eliminate this scourge.
Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including state-terrorism perpetrated against people living under foreign occupation in disputed territories.
As the phenomenon of terrorism continues to evolve, the growing levels of intolerance, emergence of extremist and hegemonic ideologies, and Islamophobic impulses, have imparted a different level of lethality to this threat.
We believe the world community can ignore these manifestations only at its own peril.
Our collective resolve to fight the evils of terrorism and extremism must, therefore, be continuously fortified, and our strategies accordingly adjusted.
The new and emerging challenges beacon us to collaborate in new ways and cooperate in new spheres of activity.
The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the imperative of collective action – because the health and well-being of one is connected to the well-being of another.
Within the SCO space, “shared goals for shared prosperity” should be our guiding principle.
The pandemic has brought in its wake, reduction in trade flows; decline in production; and growing unemployment and rising inflation — thus negatively impacting the development momentum of SCO member states.
In the recovery phase, focus should be on creating an economic model that is more resilient to turbulences, strengthens healthcare and social protection systems, and leverages the power of new technologies and innovation to maximize outreach and impact.
The growth and prosperity of SCO region is also dependent on critical drivers such as e-commerce, digitalization of businesses, innovation, and security of international supply chains.
The proposed Joint Statement on Sustainable Security and Stability of International Production and Supply Chains is thus a timely initiative that we support.
The Report on the Implementation of the Program of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation of SCO Member States had identified the tariff and non-tariff barriers posing an obstacle to enhanced trade and economic linkages.
It also called for deepening interactions between the business communities through the SCO business council.
To advance this objective, Pakistan will be hosting an interaction between SCO businessmen and entrepreneurs by end 2022.
SCO region also faces an urgent need for a development funding mechanism.
Similarly, it is important to explore modalities for increasing the use of national currencies.
The roadmap for a stage-wise development of national systems aimed at the use of national currencies is, therefore, an important initiative that we hope would lead to enhancing intra-SCO trade.
Enhancing connectivity through building rail, road, sea and air links remains critical for the realization of our shared vision.
In this context, we support the proposed “Strategy for Developing Connectivity and Creating Efficient Transport Corridors.”
Pakistan is actively working on the Trans-Afghan Railway (TAR) project with our brothers in Uzbekistan.
