SCO summit: PM meets Ashraf Ghani, shakes hand with Modi

ASTANA (Dunya News) – Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif convened a meeting with President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani and Secretary General of United Nations Organisation (UNO), António Guterres, and shook hands with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Friday under auspices of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Indian premier and Nawaz Sharif shook hands as they greeted each other in Leaders’ Lounge around a year and a half after their last meeting in Lahore.

During his sitting with President Ghani, PM Nawaz reiterated that Pakistani soil was not used against Afghanistan in the past and would not be used against her in the future. He further demanded off the state to not level baseless accusations against Pakistan.

On the other hand, during his speech following India and Pakistan’s accession to SCO as permanent members, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulated his Indian counterpart over the development however, the favour was not returned by the Indian leader under whose command border violations have worsened between the two neighbouring arch rivals.

Indian premier did not acknowledge Pakistan’s accession to the Russia-led bloc.

PM Nawaz Sharif along with his delegation is visiting Kazakhstan to attend meeting of the Heads of State Council of SCO.

Narendra Modi met Chinese Xi Jinping on sidelines of the 17th SCO summit. The meeting came weeks after the Indian leader refused to dispatch a delegation to attend ‘One Belt, One Road’ summit in Beijing.

India has maintained that Chinese vision for a ‘Silk Road’ to boost trade across the world would push all the member states in huge debts. China had hosted dozens of world leaders in her capital for the summit.

The SCO was founded in Shanghai in 2001 by then presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.