President calls for joint efforts to address issue of poverty

Islamabad  –  President Asif Ali Zardari has said the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s contiguous geographies give its members a historic opportunity to work together for economic connectivity and address common challenges.

In an article published in China Daily on Sunday, he said these challenges also include poverty, climate change and bio-degradation. The President said, “We have to make common efforts to address the challenges of poverty, and inequality. Only then, we will be able to usher in true human security anchored in a just global order.” Asif Ali Zardari said that over the past several years, the SCO’s performance in countering terrorism, curbing transnational crimes especially drug trafficking, has been impressive.

He said, “The Summit in Tianjin gives us a platform to chart a roadmap for the next decade of holistic development for SCO members.”

The President said when the SCO started, it was but a sapling, but now it has become a strong and tall tree joining nations to foster cross-regional peace, stability and prosperity.

He said these goals cannot be achieved until SCO members collectively combat the three evils – terrorism, extremism and separatism that threaten to throw our world into a state of anarchy.

Highlighting the importance of Pak-China relations, President Zardari said, “We take pride in China’s rise and leadership at the regional and global stage. The relationship between two countries is second to none and the stuff of legends that is envied by other nations.”

President Zardari said, “Our strategic cooperative partnership has been viewed and validated globally this year. We stand by and support each other on our respective core issues and common cardinal principles of respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence.”

The President said China has always been on Pakistan’s side in the most difficult times of our history. Pakistan and China are indeed “iron brothers”.

The President said, by now the world knows the SCO is not a security alliance; it is an Organization to serve humanity through economic collaboration and promotion of understanding among nations.

Asif Ali Zardari said, “We in Pakistan fully endorse China’s vision to pursue the “Shanghai Spirit” under the banner of the SCO that gives Eurasia and all nations a framework of mutual trust, sovereign equality and shared development.”

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