Russia has notified Pakistan that the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), initially scheduled for late July, has been postponed until autumn, but once the summit takes place there certainly will be a bilateral meeting between Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Ambassador to Russia Shafqat Ali Khan told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2020) Russia has notified Pakistan that the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), initially scheduled for late July, has been postponed until autumn, but once the summit takes place there certainly will be a bilateral meeting between Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Ambassador to Russia Shafqat Ali Khan told Sputnik in an interview.
The SCO summit was initially planned to be held on July 22-23, 2020 in St. Petersburg. The Kremlin announced that the event was postponed, and new dates will be determined taking into consideration the epidemiological situation development.
"We have been in close contact with the Russian side. We understand this summit was earlier scheduled to be held in July, but because of the COVID situation the summit has been postponed. We understand that the fresh dates are going to be, I think, somewhere in the fall, but the dates are going to be shared with us in due course," Khan said.
"Whenever the summit takes place, of course, there will be a meeting [between the two leaders]," the ambassador added.
Even though there are currently no plans for a phone call between the leaders, it would not be problematic to arrange one on a short notice thanks to good relations between the two nations, the Pakistani diplomat noted. He also expressed the hope for the SCO summit's success.
"Russia is a founding member, it's one of the countries which established this organization, so we are working with Russian government and we look forward to a very positive and successful summit," Khan said.
While the bringing together nations accounting nearly for one-fourth of the global population, the SCO also covers vast territories in Eurasia contributing to regional cooperation not only in economy, but also peace, security and response to common threats, the Pakistani diplomat underlined. He added that response to the COVID-19 pandemic could be one more area for cooperation between the SCO member states.
"We remain grateful to Russia for helping us become a member and it is because of the Russian assistance, corporation and support. We were very pleased. It was a major milestone in our foreign policy, when we became a full member of SCO in 2017," Khan said.
The SCO is an international association founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. At the SCO summit in Astana on June 9, 2017, the leaders of the SCO member states signed a decision on admission of India and Pakistan to the organization.
