ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Bishkek on Monday (today) to attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), where Pakistan will assume the organisation’s rotating chair for a one-year term.
The prime minister is expected to hold bilateral meetings with several visiting world leaders on the sidelines of the summit, but there are currently no plans for a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to Foreign Office.
Modi and Sharif are expected to attend the two-day summit in the Kyrgyz capital, but officials said India had not requested a bilateral meeting between the two leaders.
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“India hasn’t requested for a meeting of its prime minister with PM Sharif,” the Foreign Office said.
The summit would mark the first time the two leaders are expected to attend the same major international gathering since military hostilities between India and Pakistan in May 2025.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the leaders expected to attend the summit.
Sharif is also expected to meet the Kyrgyz president and hold talks with other leaders on the sidelines of the meeting.
The SCO leaders are expected to discuss economic cooperation and regional security, with terrorism also likely to feature on the agenda.
The situation in the Middle East may also be discussed, particularly amid tensions involving Iran, Israel and the United States.
Pezeshkian is expected to brief other leaders on developments involving Iran, officials said.
The SCO, founded in 2001, brings together China, Russia, India, Pakistan and several Central Asian states and focuses on regional security, economic cooperation and political coordination.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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