Hosting 23rd SCO summit a milestone for Pakistan: Tarar

ISLAMABAD, Oct 16 (APP): Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting, National Heritage and Culture Attaullah Tarar on Wednesday termed Pakistan’s hosting of 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit as a milestone in the context of international relations.
Talking to media persons at Media Facilitation Center at Pak-China Friendship Center, he said some inimical elements were claiming that Pakistan has been isolated at international level but now the world can see that the heads of major countries had visited our country.
“Russian and Chinese Prime Ministers’ arrival in Pakistan is good omen for us Pakistan reputation has been restored with this summit”, he added.
He said that Pakistan had made excellent arrangements for the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit being held in Islamabad today.
He said after 27 years an event of this magnitude was being hosted by Pakistan. “It is definitely an honour for Pakistan to host the 23rd summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “, he remarked.
He said that Islamabad, one of the most beautiful cities of the world, has been specially decorated for this summit and the foreign delegates have given good remarks about the city.
He said by hosting this summit Pakistan had once again proved it had the capacity and capability to host such mega events.
“World leaders and delegates will take away good impressions from Pakistan which would help further promote the soft and positive image of the country. ”
The minister said last night, the Prime Minister hosted a dinner in honour of the distinguished guests attending the SCO Summit and cultural event also marked the occasion portraying the culture of the member countries.
He said the Media Facilitation Center had been set up for local and foreign journalists covering the SCO Summit at the China-Pakistan Friendship Centre. He said that state of the art facilities were provided at the media centre so that the journalists could perform their professional duties easily and transmit news stories about the summit.
He said during his speech Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke about regional security, counter-terrorism and climate change.
He said such forums provide opportunities to discuss issues being faced by the countries of the region.
He opined that it was also very important to promote cultural exchanges as the states of the region have many cultural similarities. “Culture plays an important role in the public and soft image of any country,” he added.
Bilateral meetings were also being held on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, he said, adding the PM had bilateral meetings with heads of countries including Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and other countries.
He said during these fruitful meetings cooperation in fields of industry, energy, agriculture and promotion trade were
discussed. He also said that Pakistani ministers and focal persons had held meetings with different delegates to finalise the arrangements for investment and trade.
To a question, he said that there were no official requests from the both sides for a bilateral meeting with the Indian External Affairs Minister, however, the arrival of Indian delegates was a good gesture at international level.
He said that during recent visits of Pakistan’s ministers to Russia, they were taking interest in investing in agriculture, gas and oil and mining sectors of Pakistan.
“Our bilateral relations with Russia were improving with each passing of each day” he remarked.