ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will lead the Pakistani delegation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting, scheduled to take place from July 14 to 16, 2025, in Tianjin, China.
According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on Sunday, the visit is being carried out at the invitation of the Foreign Minister of China, Mr. Wang Yi.
Foreign Ministers of all SCO member States, including Pakistan, China, Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, will participate in the CFM meeting. The Foreign Minister of Belarus will attend the CFM for the first time as a member of the SCO.
The CFM is the third highest forum in the SCO format, according to the Foreign Office. It focuses on the issues of international relations, as well as the foreign and security policies of the SCO.
The forum approves the documents, including declarations and statements, etc., that are to be presented for the consideration of the Council of Heads of State (CHS), as well as the decisions to be adopted by the CHS.
The upcoming CHS will take place on 31 August – 01 September 2025 in Tianjin, China.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan will also hold bilateral meetings with their counterparts on the sidelines of the CFM meeting.
It may be recalled that the ten-member organisation was established on 15 June 2001. Pakistan became an SCO Observer in 2005 and acquired full membership in June 2017. Pakistan advocates regional peace, stability, and socio-economic development at the SCO platform.
The SCO region is home to 3.4 billion people (42% of the world population. It occupies a landmass of 36 million square kilometres (25% of the global landmass) and accounts for a combined GDP of $24.67 trillion (25% of the global GDP).
