"Pakistan's permanent status in Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) will enable the country to diversify its foreign policy and play a more effective role in stability of the region apart from proving to be milestone in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)." President Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) Shah Faisal Afridi said on Wednesday.
While commenting on full membership of Pakistan in SCO, Afridi urged the government that being permanent member of SCO Pakistan should play a proactive role in the formation of an integrated and connected Eurasia. "It's time to work with the "Shanghai Spirit" he asserted and added that the SCO could not be undermined in this complex world order as it covers 60 percent of the total Eurasian landmass and nations having world's largest energy resources.
He pointed out that the SCO had created a new model of international relations encouraging partnership instead of alliance. Terming the SCO as "fully in tune with the realities and requirements of the 21st century," he said the SCO had introduced a new model for future of the international relationships. As this is going to be an Asian century, the regional and world powers couldn't ignore Pakistan in any kind of framework that places a focus on peace and development within the geographical arena of SCO, Afridi added.
Evaluating Pakistan's quest for full membership, he explained that Pakistan had the requisite credentials - a constructive role in Afghanistan, determination to fight against forces of terrorism, extremism and separatism, a promising and prospective energy and trade corridor for the region, historical and cultural ties with Central Asian Republics, close strategic and economic ties with China, and growing relations with Russia - that supported Pakistan's claim to full membership of the SCO. As member of the SCO, Pakistan should have to observe the Shanghai spirit.
Afridi said that Pakistan is a natural ally of the SCO, ideally located where it can be a source for regional economic integration within and between SCO member states. Chinese assistance in developing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), developing Gwadar Port and Kashgar as a special economic zone, upgrading the Karakorum Highway (KKH) and linking Gwadar with Kashgar and Central Asia via the KKH are steps being taken with the SCO's efforts to create trans-continental overland connectivity, he added.
Afridi further elaborated that the main goals of the SCO bloc are to strengthen mutual confidence and good neighbourly relations among the member states. Moreover the bloc seeks co-operation among the states in energy, transportation, tourism, environmental protection as well as joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region, Afridi mentioned.
He explicated that the six-member states of the SCO is covering a territory hosting more than one-quarter of the world's population and the forum was not an alliance directed against any other state or region. "Over the last decade, its activities have expanded to include military co-operation, intelligence sharing and counterterrorism drills in order to combat three evil forces: separatism, extremism and terrorism," Afridi said.
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