Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif delivered his opening speech for the 23rd meeting of the Head of Governments of SCO held here on Wednesday. He indirectly sneered at India while attacking the rival country over taking part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif seized the opportunity to speak of the significance of the corridor and advised New Delhi to "stop seeing politics in every issue related to the partnership between Pakistan and China vis-à-vis CPEC and its second leg, CPEC-2.".
Pakistan-China economic partnership in CPEC and CPEC-2 holds massive regional importance and should not be looked at through the prism of political lens, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in the opening speech at SCO meeting in Islamabad.
Even though PM Shehbaz did not call out India by name, the above statement is an indirect jibe at India, which has been critical of Pakistan and China's economic cooperation through CPEC and CPEC-2, the flagship project of China's multi-billion dollar project under its One Belt One Road (OBOR).
PM Shehbaz called upon the SCO member states to join together and make of this opportunity presented by Afghanistan to the regional states for economic and development cooperation and insisted that collective efforts are needed to make sure that Afghanistan soil is not used against any neighbor state by any element to spread terrorism.
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