Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formally assumed the chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on behalf of Pakistan on Tuesday, using his address at the SCO Council of Heads of State summit in Bishkek to lay out the country’s priorities for its one-year term, from artificial intelligence and energy cooperation to poverty reduction and disaster management. The speech, delivered on the second day of a three-day official visit to Kyrgyzstan running from August 31 to September 2, marked Pakistan’s formal transition into one of the more consequential diplomatic roles it will hold over the coming year.

Addressing the 26th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State, Sharif said that during Pakistan’s chairmanship the country would prioritise information technology and artificial intelligence, energy development, poverty reduction, disaster management, health, culture and sports, framing the agenda as an effort to ensure the organisation delivers what he called tangible dividends to the peoples of its member states rather than remaining a purely diplomatic forum. He described the SCO’s twenty-five years since its founding as a milestone worth marking, comparing the organisation’s growth to that of a tender sapling that had matured into a towering tree providing security and stability to the region.

Connectivity featured prominently throughout the prime minister’s remarks. He told the gathered heads of state that regional connectivity, an issue he said he had long advocated for, was no longer a matter of choice but had become a strategic imperative for a region home to more than three billion people and significant natural resources. He called for diversified transport networks, secure energy corridors and resilient supply chains, arguing that these would strengthen both security and economic integration across SCO member states. He specifically highlighted the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as an important vehicle for linking regional economies to the Arabian Sea, and called for full implementation of the SCO Development Strategy 2035, describing the establishment of a proposed SCO Development Bank as a critical step toward realising that agenda.

The prime minister’s most pointed remarks, however, centred on water, an issue he described in stark terms given heightened regional tensions over transboundary rivers. “South Asia cannot realise its true potential without lasting peace. Water is the lifeblood of our region; it sustains millions of lives, nourishes our land,” Sharif said, adding that water must never be weaponised or used as an instrument of coercion or political leverage. The remarks, while not directed at any single country by name, were widely read against the backdrop of ongoing disputes over shared water resources in the region, and reflected a theme Pakistani officials have raised with increasing frequency in international forums over the past year.

Sharif also used the address to revisit Pakistan’s diplomatic role in the ongoing effort to de-escalate the conflict between the United States and Iran, describing Pakistan as having acted as an honest and sincere mediator and facilitator whose efforts had culminated in the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding. He called the MoU the most viable and enduring pathway toward lasting regional peace, and said Pakistan had advocated for peace when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of an SCO member state was violated earlier this year, a crisis he said had disrupted the global economy and imposed heavy economic costs on Pakistan and the wider international community through the closure of critical energy supply routes.

On terrorism, the prime minister struck a more sombre note, telling the summit that Pakistan had sacrificed more than 90,000 lives in its fight against militancy and had absorbed economic losses exceeding 150 billion dollars as a result, figures he cited as evidence of the scale of the threat the region continues to face and the stakes involved in strengthening collective security cooperation among SCO member states.

Pakistan’s chairmanship, which runs through 2026–27, comes with the responsibility of leading the organisation’s activities over the coming year, including efforts to strengthen cooperation among member states on regional security, economic development and connectivity. Islamabad is scheduled to host the next SCO Council of Heads of State summit in 2027, giving Pakistan an opportunity to showcase the outcomes of its chairmanship agenda on home soil at the conclusion of its term. Sharif thanked outgoing chair Kyrgyzstan and President Sadyr Zhaparov for hosting this year’s summit, and invited fellow leaders to attend the 2027 session in Islamabad.

The summit itself brought together the SCO’s full membership, with leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping among those who signed the summit’s declaration alongside Sharif. Closing his remarks, the prime minister called on member states to choose cooperation over confrontation, dialogue over division, and bridges over barriers, framing Pakistan’s year at the helm of the organisation as an opportunity to help shape, rather than simply witness, a changing regional order.

Compiled by the Weekly PK Staff Desk.