BEIJING: China on Thursday hoped that Pakistan and India, after becoming the full members of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) during the upcoming Astana Summit, would strictly follow the idea of good neighborliness and improve their bilateral relations by upholding the Shanghai spirit.
“We hope, Pakistan and India will strictly follow the charter of SCO and the idea of good neighborliness, uphold the Shanghai spirit to improve their relations and inject new impetus to the development of SCO,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Hua Chunying said during her regular press briefing in Beijing.
She said both Pakistan and India would complete the process of becoming full members of the SCO making it the world’s most populous and largest regional cooperative organisation, which would bring unprecedented development capacity and cooperation potential.
“Now, the SCO will complete the first membership expansion since its establishment and it will become a regional organisation with the largest coverage and involving the biggest population,” she said, while responding to a question.
About the completion of membership process, she informed that in the SCO Summit held at Ufa, Russia, the member countries of the SCO had launched the process to accept membership of Pakistan and India.
“Now, the members of the SCO are accelerating the legal process on implementation of a memorandum of understanding in this regard and everything is going smoothly,” she added.
Hua Chunying hoped that India and Pakistan would be full members at the Astana Summit to be held this month. “We also expect the Astana Summit will fulfill the admission procedures of the two countries,” Chunying said.
The SCO summit is likely to be held this month in Astana, Kazakhstan when welcoming its seventh and eighth member nations would be a key item on the agenda.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the SCO Charter and the 10th anniversary of the signing of the treaty on long-term good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation by SCO members. China will take over the SCO rotating presidency after the Astana summit.
