Internal Instability in Pakistan and ‘China’ focus undermine SCO Summit significance

Li’s visit was the first by a Chinese premier to Pakistan in 11 years. Many analysts saw this year’s SCO gathering as a bilateral summit between China and Pakistan rather than a multilateral event. [2] While the SCO has a mandate to discuss security, the Islamabad summit focused on trade, humanitarian and cultural issues to avoid embarrassment for Pakistan on the issue of terrorism. [10]Moreover, a prominent Baloch activist, Dr Mahrang Baloch, was booked under false “terror” charges before the Chinese Premier visited Pakistan. Finally, Pakistan’s internal political and security challenges significantly diminished the importance of the SCO-CHG meeting, drawing unwanted attention from critics of the regional organization.