Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will participate in the forthcoming 17th Meeting of Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. [Special coverage]
Pakistan will become a full member of SCO at the Astana summit, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Pakistan has been a SCO observer since 2005.
On the sidelines of the SCO summit, Sharif will hold a number of bilateral meetings with other participating leaders, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Pakistan fully subscribes to the charter of SCO and the 'Shanghai Spirit'. As an Observer, we have been actively participating in the activities of the organization."
It said Pakistan shares with SCO and its member states deep-rooted historical and cultural links, as well as strong economic and strategic complementarities.
"Our interests converge across a wide range of areas. SCO will help us underscore our interest in regional peace, stability and development and our support for regional cooperation against terrorism and extremism." the statement said.
SCO, established in 2001, is a regional political, economic and security organization that groups China, kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as full members.
India and Pakistan's SCO accession procedures started in 2015. The two signed the SCO Memorandum of Obligations in June 2016, thereby kick-starting the formal process of joining SCO as full members. SCO has a number of observers and dialogue partners.
