Gilani urges SCO for shared vision on regional peace

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday urged the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for adopting a shared vision of trans-regional cooperation to achieve peace and development in the region. I have no doubt that by collective wisdom and concerted efforts, we can contribute to building a prosperous future, the Prime Minister said while addressing eighth annual meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of SCO. The summit was attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Secretary General Bolat Nurgaliev and other SCO heads of government. Prime Minister Gilani said the challenges particularly financial crisis, terrorism and extremism, energy, food, environmental and information security need to be addressed on priority. He suggested that SCO must assume the lead in initiating a high-level strategic dialogue engaging the spectrum of its association and observers, to crystallize a comprehensive and large-scale trans-regional development agenda. He said practical modalities must be worked out to craft investment instruments for win-win project cooperation in the areas of energy and infrastructure. Gilani proposed for developing SCOs Banking Association and Business Council to harness the potentials of private and corporate sectors of SCO affiliates. He pointed free trade as the only option to enable the regional economies to shield themselves from vagaries of financial turmoil. The Prime Minister called upon the SCO member states to grant Pakistan full membership, since it had been on observer status for the last four years. He said Pakistan shares with SCO and its members, strong economic and strategic complementarities and hoped an early and affirmative response for membership. The event was attended by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and Russia that took over the presidency of the organization last August. Pakistan, Iran, India and Mongolia attended the summit as observers, while Afghanistan and Turkmenistan as guests. The SCOs six full members account for 60 percent of the land mass of Eurasia and its population is a third of the world, while with its affiliates, the SCO accounts for half of the human race. The SCO aims at combating terrorism, extremism and separatism. While focusing primarily on security matters, the organization in recent years, expanded its mandate to also include cooperation in the economic, humanitarian and technological fields.