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Leaders show up in locked-down Islamabad for Shanghai Cooperation event

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Zhaparov landed in Islamabad on Tuesday to attend a. headsofgovernment gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation. Organisation (SCO), the Pakistani federal government stated, with the city. under tight security lockdown.

The conference of the SCO, a Eurasian security and political. group formed in 2001 by Russia and China, is the greatest profile. occasion hosted by the struggling South Asian country in years.

Chinese Best Li Qiang is currently in Pakistan, while. seven more prime ministers of other member and observer states,. including Russian Premier Mikhail Mishustin, will also be. participating in individual.

The occasion has actually amassed more attention with India, Pakistan's. neighbour and arch-rival, sending out External Affairs Minister. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the first Indian foreign minister to. go to Pakistan in nearly a years as relations stay wintry. in between the 2 nuclear powers.

The SCO also consists of Iran, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic,. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Prime Ministers of Belarus and. Mongolia are likewise going to.

While the primary SCO conference will take place on Wednesday,. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to host a. welcome dinner for delegates on Tuesday. Pakistan's Foreign. Workplace stated Sharif will likewise hold bilateral conferences on the. sidelines.

The SCO conference will go over continuous cooperation in the. fields of economy and trade, Pakistan's Foreign Workplace stated. Observers believe the bloc seeks to counter Western influence in. the area.

Pakistan's federal government has announced a three-day public. vacation in Islamabad, with schools and organizations shut and big. contingents of cops and paramilitary forces deployed.

Pakistani army troops will be responsible for the security. of the capital's Red Zone, the place of the parliament and a. diplomatic enclave and where the majority of the SCO meetings will take. place, according to the interior ministry.

The hazard alert has actually been high in the South Asian nation. ahead of the SCO summit, particularly after the killing of two. Chinese engineers on Oct. 6 and shooting deaths of 21 miners on. Oct. 11.

(source: Reuters)