Khawaja Asif to reach Beijing on Sunday for foreign ministers’ meeting

BEIJING: Foreign minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif will reach the Chinese capital Sunday to participate in Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers meeting on April 24.

According to official sources, Asif is expected to meet SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov and other foreign ministers of SCO member states on April 23.

Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj will also reach Beijing Sunday and is expected to meet her Chinese counterpart on the same day.

As per the Chinese media, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to convince Swaraj to review Indian policy on the Belt and Road Initiative and become a part of the newly purposed China-Nepal-India economic corridor.

The SCO meeting will be chaired by Wang Yi and attended by the foreign ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India as well as Alimov and SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Executive Committee Director Yevgeniy Sysoyev.

The purpose of meeting is to lay groundwork for the upcoming SCO summit that will be held in June this year in Qingdao city of Shandong province in China.

Pakistan and India were acknowledged as full members of the SCO last year in the Astana summit.

It also comprises Afghanistan, Iran and Mongolia as its observer states whereas Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka are the dialogue partners.

SCO was founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001, by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan.