Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar arrived in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Monday to lead the Pakistani delegation at the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting from October 19 to 20.
Upon arrival, the deputy prime minister was received by Tajikistan’s Minister of Energy and Water Resources and Co-Chair of the Pakistan–Tajikistan Joint Commission Daler Juma, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Tajikistan Irfan Ahmed, and Pakistan’s National Coordinator for the SCO Khalil Hashmi, along with senior Tajik government officials.
According to the Foreign Office, Dar is visiting at the invitation of Tajikistan’s Prime Minister Qohir Rasulzoda.
The SCO meeting will be attended by the prime ministers of Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as Iran’s vice president and India’s external affairs minister, according to the Foreign Office.
The Council of Heads of Government is the SCO’s second-highest decision-making body. It provides guidance on economic, financial, trade, connectivity, commerce and socio-economic cooperation, as well as the organisation’s budgetary matters.
The meeting is expected to adopt a joint communiqué, statements and other decisions.
During the visit, Dar will also call on Tajikistan’s president and prime minister and hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from SCO member states on the sidelines of the meeting, the Foreign Office said.