Opening Remarks for the Weekly Press Briefing by Spokesperson 26 October 2023
Thank you for joining us for the Weekly Briefing.
Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani is in Bishkek today where he is leading the Pakistani delegation at the SCO Council of Heads of Government Meeting. The Council of Heads of Government is the second-highest forum within the SCO, with a primary focus on fostering cooperation among member states in socioeconomic, trade, and financial sectors.
Since yesterday, the Foreign Minister has met with the President and Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Vice President of Iran and the Secretary General of SCO. These exchanges covered a wide array of areas of bilateral cooperation and discussion on regional cooperation for mutual prosperity.
During the deliberations today, the Foreign Minister has reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering commitment to the “Shanghai Spirit,” emphasizing mutual trust and a shared vision for prosperity and development. He outlined Pakistan’s perspective on transport and regional connectivity, regional cooperation in youth empowerment, poverty alleviation, climate change, and disaster relief.
The Joint Communiqué, likely to be adopted at the meeting, encapsulates the collective views of SCO Member States on crucial areas such as economy, trade, climate change, finance, industry, investment, energy, agriculture and food security.
At the conclusion of today’s meeting, Pakistan will assume the Chair of the Council of Heads of Government. Our work as the Chair, starting today until autumn 2024, will be driven by our steadfast dedication to the SCO Charter and efforts for collective prosperity and development. Our focus will be on practical collaboration in bolstering connectivity, transport infrastructure, youth empowerment, poverty alleviation and the imperative of investing in high-potential sectors, including agriculture, mining, minerals, energy, and information technology.
The situation in occupied Palestine remains a source of serious concern for Pakistan. Pakistan reiterates its full and unequivocal support for our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza who are at the receiving end of an inhumane campaign of collective punishment by the Israeli occupation forces. We mourn the over 6500 civilians killed in Gaza including 2700 children as a result of Israel’s relentless and indiscriminate bombardment.
We commend the services of doctors, paramedics and first responders who continue to serve their fellow human beings despite the challenging circumstances and personal hardship. We also salute the journalists and workers of UNRWA and other UN organizations for making the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.
We regret that despite the rising death toll, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and calls for ethnic cleansing, the UN Security Council has failed to even call for a cease-fire and put an end to the carnage in Gaza.
Pakistan looks forward to today’s special emergency session of UNGA and hopes that it will play a role where the UN Security Council has failed in bringing about an urgent and unconditional ceasefire, and immediate relief to the people of Gaza, and condemn the plans for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
We urge the backers of Israel to play their role in bringing an end to this atrocity and take effective steps to lift the siege of Gaza and support a sustainable pipeline of life-saving humanitarian assistance, including water, fuel, food, and medicines for the besieged people of Gaza. The international community must also ensure that the violence and the bombing campaign do not spread and engulf the entire Middle East.
Pakistan believes that durable peace in the Middle East will emerge from a two-state solution and the creation of a secure, viable, contiguous, and sovereign state of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
The script being enacted by Israeli occupation forces in Palestine is being replicated by India in IIOJK with egregious human rights violations and blatantly illegal attempts to change the demographic nature of the occupied territory.
Like the Palestinian people, the people of Jammu and Kashmir continue to wait for the UN Security Council to ensure the implementation of its own resolutions that recognize their right to self-determination. Rooted in the colonial past, the Jammu and Kashmir dispute like the Palestine question has been on the UN Security Council’s agenda for over seven decades.
Tomorrow, is the 76th anniversary of a dark day in the history of South Asia, when on 27 October 1947, the Indian occupation forces landed in Jammu and Kashmir. Thus, beginning a dark chapter in the lives of the Kashmiri people.
The people of Kashmir have never accepted and will never accept the illegal occupation of their land nor the systematic campaign by India to suppress them by force and to turn them into a disempowered minority in their own land.
Pakistan will continue to provide political, moral, and diplomatic support to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters until they realize their inherent right to self-determination as per the UNSC resolutions.
I thank you!
Editor: Raja Kamran