Pakistan eyes peace and development

Pakistan stands ready to work closely with fellow members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to promote regional development and peace, said Masood Khalid, Pakistani ambassador to China.

In June 2017, the SCO granted membership to Pakistan and India, making the regional organization the world’s biggest in terms of population and geographical coverage.

For Khalid, the SCO has also grown into an engine for global growth, and plays a vital role in liberalization of global trade.

“The SCO is endowed with enormous resources, technology and capital required to tap our natural resources. We have a big market with relatively good purchasing power,” Khalid said.

Such an advantage will spur further growth in Pakistan — which has economic development as one of its priorities. And Pakistan would like to “solicit cooperation from all SCO member states to defeat poverty in our region”, he told China Daily.

Pakistan is cooperating with China in building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is expected to become a key transport and energy artery linking China’s Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with the port of Gwadar in southern Pakistan.

Such cooperation has accelerated foreign investment in Pakistan, Khalid said.

“Road and energy infrastructure is improving and economic growth of the country is on the right trajectory. People in Pakistan are learning new ways of problem solving by interacting with their Chinese friends,” he said.

Also, the construction of the corridor — a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative — is “a case in point” that the initiative is benefiting the SCO region, the ambassador pointed out.

Pakistan is ready to contribute to the development of the SCO region, Khalid said.

Pakistan is at the crossroads of North, South and Central Asia, and such a “strategic location” can serve as a bridge between the SCO region and the Arab world, Southeast Asia as well as Africa, according to the ambassador.

What’s more, Pakistan — “a front line state in the fight against terrorism” — can share its experience in counterterrorism efforts, Khalid said.