ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Monday to lead Pakistan’s delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting being held on October 19-20, the Foreign Office (FO) said. Upon arrival, FM Dar was received by Tajikistan’s Minister of Energy and Water Resources and Co-Chair of the Pakistan-Tajikistan Joint Commission, Daler Juma, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Tajikistan, Irfan Ahmed, and Pakistan’s National Coordinator for the SCO, Khalil Hashmi, along with senior Tajik government officials, according to the FO. In an earlier statement issued ahead of the visit, the FO said FM Dar would attend the meeting at the invitation of Tajikistan’s Prime Minister Qohir Rasulzoda. “The FM Dar will lead Pakistan’s delegation to the meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG), to be held in Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan on 19-20 October 2026,” it said. The meeting will bring together the prime ministers of Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while Iran will be represented by its vice-president and India by its external affairs minister, according to the statement. The FO said the Council of Heads of Government was the SCO’s “second highest decision-making institution” and provided guidance on economic and financial affairs, trade, connectivity, commerce, socio-economic cooperation and the organization’s budget. “The CHG will also adopt a Joint Communiqué, statements and important decisions,” it said. During the visit, FM Dar was also scheduled to call on Tajikistan’s president and prime minister and hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from SCO member states on the sidelines of the meeting. The SCO is a regional organization whose areas of cooperation include economic development, trade, connectivity and security. Its Council of Heads of Government focuses primarily on economic and financial cooperation among member states. The meeting comes as Pakistan advances its priorities under its chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State for 2026-27, with the country scheduled to host the organization’s next summit in Islamabad. in 2027.In September, Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to advancing the bloc’s objectives and called for greater practical cooperation among member states in areas including economic development, transport and connectivity. Pakistan’s chairmanship is being pursued under the theme “Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation, and Shared Prosperity”, with FM Dar stressing the need to translate the organization’s shared objectives into practical outcomes.
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