Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday was welcomed, along with other delegates, in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe by Tajik PM Qohir Rasulzoda for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting.

The CHG is the SCO’s second-highest decision-making body and provides guidance on economic, financial, trade, connectivity and socio-economic cooperation, as well as the organisation’s budgetary matters.

In a statement on X, the Foreign Office (FO) said DPM Dar also called on the Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, along with other heads of delegations attending the SCO meeting.

“President Rahmon welcomed the leaders and emphasised the importance of strengthening regional economic cooperation under the SCO to promote connectivity, stability and shared prosperity,” FO said.

During his visit, Dar will also hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from SCO member states on the sidelines of the meeting.

Pakistan, which hosted a CHG meeting in October 2024, is now scheduled to host the Council of Heads of State (CHS) summit in 2027 after it assumed the chairmanship last month.

On Sept 30, Dar reviewed preparations for the CHS summit as SCO national coordinators, who were in Islamabad for a meeting, called on him.

In July, Pakistan hosted the 12th meeting of the Heads of Border Services of the Competent Authorities of the SCO. Islamabad also chairs SCO’s Reg­ional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS), a role it assumed last September.