Pakistan Pitches CPEC as Gateway to SCO Economic Integration
Addressing the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the multibillion-dollar project “offers every SCO partner a compelling opportunity to participate in and accelerate our shared journey toward comprehensive economic integration.”
CPEC is part of China’s One Belt, One Road project. It is designed to link China’s northwestern Xinjiang province with Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province through a 2,000-mile web of roads, railways and pipelines.
Dar said “seamless” economic integration depends on targeted investment in core sectors, above all energy and transport.
“Pakistan strongly advocates for expanding investments into high-potential industries, including agriculture, mining and minerals, and information technology, to build a resilient and interconnected economic future for all our nations,” he maintained.
Dar also said artificial intelligence, digital transformation, innovation, energy cooperation and international information security should become key pillars of future SCO cooperation. He renewed his call for faster efforts to promote national currencies in mutual settlements and to create the SCO Development Bank, SCO Development Fund and an Investment Fund.
Lasting economic growth, he observed, cannot be guaranteed without durable peace and security across the region.
“Ensuring stability in Afghanistan is imperative for safeguarding the peace and stability of our region. Pakistan continues to be desirous of a peaceful, stable, regionally integrated and prosperous Afghanistan, which is at peace with itself and its neighbors,” he added.
In return, he said, Islamabad has a single expectation of the Afghan Taliban regime: that Afghan territory not be used for terrorism against Pakistan or the wider world.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Dar held talks with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin. According to a Pakistani Foreign Ministry statement, the two stressed the need to expand trade and economic cooperation, improve regional connectivity, and deepen collaboration on energy, security and people-to-people exchanges. They also discussed regional and global developments.
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