Pakistan's Membership in SCO to Improve Relations With India - Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will play a positive role in improving bilateral relations with India, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Pakistani prime minister said that the SCO would provide Pakistan and India a platform to work together and increase mutual trust.

"I am optimistic about the fact that SCO membership will play a role of a catalyst that will help improve our bilateral relationship with India based on the principles of cooperation and will bring [the countries] mutual benefit," Sharif told RIA Novosti in an interview.

Despite cultural, geographic and linguistic links, the relations between the two South Asian nations have been overshadowed by a number of conflicts, including the Kashmir military conflict.

The SCO is a political, military and economic alliance that includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The alliance has been holding annual summits since 1996.

On July 8-10, Russian city of Ufa will host the SCO and the BRICS group summits, where, according to sources in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi is likely to hold a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart.

Mongolia, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have observer status in the organization. In September 2014, Pakistan and India formally applied to join the alliance.