ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday called for the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit to promote multilateralism in the form of economic, financial, commercial and technological ties among member states.
These thoughts were expressed by the Pakistani president in a column for the English-language Chinese newspaper, ‘China Daily,’ on Sunday. The column was published as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif joins several world leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the Chinese city of Tianjin for the SCO’s Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 regional summit.
The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners.” China has long sought to present the SCO as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed for greater collaboration between its member states.
“One of the pressing tasks for the Summit is to promote and practice true multilateralism covering not just peace and security but economic, financial, commercial and technological ties among nations,” Zardari wrote.
“It is our obligation to strengthen global institutions.”
