Janjua to attend SCO meeting in Beijing to discuss security cooperation

BEIJING: National Security Advisor (NSA) Nasser Khan Janjua will visit Beijing to attend the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation NSAs discuss security cooperation between SCO members states, Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The meeting will be held from May 21 to May 22.

The primary task of the meeting is to discuss for political and security preparations of the upcoming SCO Summit, to be held in Qingdao, China next month, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Lu Kang said during a press briefing.

This will be the first meeting of the NSAs after Pakistan and India joined last year as the full member of the SCO. President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain is expected to lead the country's delegation for this summit.

“We believe that with joint efforts of all parties, this meeting will further consolidate the consensus of SCO member states on security cooperation and inject new impetus for cooperation among member states in the security field” Lu added.

During the meeting, Chinese leaders will collectively meet with the heads of delegations attending the conference. State Councilor Zhao Kezhi will chair the meeting.

Lu said that all parties will exchange in-depth views on the security situation and discuss priority for security cooperation between member states, such as drug trafficking and anti-terrorism collaboration.

The 13th meeting of the National Security Council Secretaries will be attended by all member states along with the SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov, Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure Yevgeniy Sysoyev.

Indian Deputy NSA Rajinder Khanna is also expected to attend this meeting.

SCO was founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001, and comprises China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. Pakistan and India were acknowledged as full members of the SCO at last year in Astana summit.

The committee also has Afghanistan, Iran, and Mongolia as its observer states whereas Belarus, Turkey, and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners.