Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif welcomes Jaishankar at SCO Summit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday on Wednesday welcomed External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at the venue of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Islamabad.

Jaishankar is in Pakistan to participate in the 23rd Meeting of SCO Council of Heads of Government being held today.

In visuals of the meeting from state-run Pakistan Television showed Jaishankar and Sharif exchanging a handshake and posing for photographs together for the media.

Jaishankar arrived in the neighbouring country yesterday for a two-day visit to attend the 23rd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the (SCO).

#WATCH | Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif welcomes EAM Dr S Jaishankar at the venue of the SCO Summit in Islamabad.

EAM is in Pakistan to participate in the 23rd Meeting of SCO Council of Heads of Government.

(Source: Host broadcaster/PTV) pic.twitter.com/mjPJSVrM28

— ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2024

He attended a dinner hosted by Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif, during which they shook hands and greeted each other.

Upon his arrival at the Rawalpindi airport Jaishankar was warmly received at Nur Khan Airbase by Ilyas Mehmood Nizami, Director General (South Asia) of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Children dressed in traditional attire presented him with flower bouquets.

#WATCH | Islamabad: Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif welcomes EAM Dr S Jaishankar and other SCO Council Heads of Government, to a dinner hosted by him.

EAM is in Pakistan to participate in the 23rd Meeting of SCO Council of Heads of Government.

(Video: ANI; visuals earlier this… pic.twitter.com/dNA5N3hsQ0

— ANI (@ANI) October 15, 2024

The two-day meeting of SCO CHG, the second highest forum within the SCO, will be chaired by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif as the current chair of the Council.

Pakistan had assumed the rotating chair of the SCO CHG for 2023-24 at the previous meeting held in Bishkek on October 26, 2023, where the country was represented by then interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that the meeting will focus on the trade and economic agenda of the organisation. Jaishankar is leading the Indian delegation at the 23rd Meeting of the SCO. (ANI)