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Pakistan wants full-fledged membership in Shanghai Cooperation Orgnaizations

Pakistan ready to assist in process of national reconciliation in Afghanistan

MOSCOW, June 20, /ITAR-TASS/. Pakistan wants to be a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the potential of which is growing, Sartaj Aziz, an advisor to the prime minister of Pakistan on national security and foreign affairs, told ITAR-TASS on Friday.

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“The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is playing an ever growing role, especially in the area of regional security,” he said. “That is why Pakistan is taking an active part in its work even in the status of observer.”

“The next SCO summit due in September in Dushanbe is expected to adopt admission rules for new members, so we will exert more efforts to further our application for full-fledged membership in this organization,” he noted.

“Since many states of the region are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, it can play an important role in securing peace and stability in Afghanistan, which is to be one of the agenda provisions at the September summit. I think that Afghanistan is an example of how SCO members can cooperate in the interests of strengthening security in the region, of how the SCO mechanism can be used to achieve peace in a concrete country.

Pakistan will not interfere with the process of national reconciliation in Afghanistan but is ready to offer all possible support, Sartaj Aziz, an advisor to the prime minister of Pakistan on national security and foreign affairs, he told.

“The key question linked with the forthcoming withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan is whether it will bring peace and revival to the country or will entail a new war,” he said.

“Pakistan would not like to interfere into this process, this is the competence of the Afghan people and the country’s new government,” he noted. “We can only offer assistance, certain support to national reconciliation in Afghanistan, so, on our part, we shall continue efforts in this direction.”

Aziz also said he would welcome more active involvement of the “mechanism of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, taking into consideration its growing potential.

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