Pak PM, Chinese Prez to Attend Virtual SCO Summit Hosted by India

New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit hosted by India on July 4.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Friday confirmed that on the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend this virtual summit.

“At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Xi will attend via video-conference in Beijing the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads meeting of the SCO on July 4 and deliver important remarks”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a press release on Friday.

The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc formed at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

India holds the rotating Presidency of the organization this year.