By Sami Ahmed
TradeTrend
Published: Sep 30, 2026
ISLAMABAD, September 30, 2026: Pakistan’s year at the helm of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization begins with an agenda already crowded with regional programmes, leaving its 2026–27 chairmanship to navigate what gets carried forward, what gains implementation and what Islamabad adds of its own
The first meeting of the SCO Council of National Coordinators under Pakistan’s chairmanship today put that process into motion, bringing member states together to review planned activities, progress on key initiatives and preparations for forthcoming meetings and events.
That makes the chairmanship more than a sequence of meetings leading to the 2027 Islamabad summit: it is a year in which Pakistan will have to work through an existing SCO programme while using its own priorities of connectivity, innovation and shared prosperity to shape what reaches the leaders’ table next year.
🔊PR No.2️⃣7️⃣0️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) September 30, 2026
First Meeting of SCO Council of National Coordinators (CNC), Under the Chairmanship of Pakistan, 28-30 September, 2026
🔗⬇️ pic.twitter.com/CDe4nbDwWD
The programme Pakistan inherited
Pakistan assumed the SCO chairmanship after the organization’s Council of Heads of State met in Bishkek on September 1. That summit adopted programmes covering areas including ports and logistics, green technology, artificial intelligence, energy and information security. Those decisions now form part of the programme being carried forward during Pakistan’s chairmanship.
For the documentary record of those Bishkek decisions, see TradeTrend’s September 1 report on the SCO action plan for ports and AI development and the SCO Secretariat’s account of the 26th Council of Heads of State meeting.
Pakistan has given its chairmanship the theme “Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation and Shared Prosperity.” The Foreign Office has identified connectivity, innovation, economic cooperation and people-to-people contacts among its priorities.
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 today addressed the National Coordinators of SCO Member States, along with senior representatives of the SCO Secretariat and SCO RATS, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad.
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) September 30, 2026
Welcoming the… pic.twitter.com/YROPzrn5AG
At the CNC meeting, Dar told national coordinators and representatives of the SCO Secretariat and SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure that Pakistan wanted the organization’s shared vision translated into practical cooperation and tangible outcomes.
The Foreign Office said the CNC reviewed the programme of planned activities, took stock of progress on key initiatives and discussed preparations for forthcoming meetings and events.
The statement did not provide a detailed public list of the initiatives reviewed or their individual implementation timelines.
A chairmanship built around existing SCO work
The Bishkek summit's decisions provide a starting point for the year ahead. They include the 2026–2030 action plan for developing ports and logistics centres of SCO member states, the programme for an SCO Green Technology Corridor for 2026–2030, a concept for regional data-processing centres and computing capacities, development of the SCO artificial-intelligence industry and a cooperation plan on international information security for 2026–2028.
Pakistan's chairmanship therefore begins alongside a set of multilateral programmes already adopted by the SCO. The status of these programmes can be followed through the organization’s subsequent meetings, where further agreements, implementation arrangements, participating institutions and timelines may emerge.
Ports and logistics centres
Green Technology Corridor
International information security cooperation
Regional computing capacities and SCO artificial-intelligence industry
Connectivity and trade
Connectivity is one of the areas Pakistan has placed at the centre of its chairmanship.
Pakistan has previously presented its geographical position as a link between South Asia, Central Asia and other parts of the SCO region, while identifying transport, trade, investment and energy as areas for greater regional cooperation.
The country also has an established SCO record in these fields.
Pakistan chaired the Council of Heads of Government process and hosted the 2024 meeting in Islamabad. The joint communique from that meeting recorded work on trade and economic cooperation, investment, financial mechanisms, payment systems, transport and logistics.
The current chairmanship provides another period in which those areas can be carried forward through the SCO's institutional process.
The economic record also contains proposals for possible financial mechanisms, including discussions concerning an SCO Development Bank, SCO Development Fund and, among interested members, an SCO Investment Fund.
The 2024 Council of Heads of Government communique also recorded proposals concerning an independent settlement and clearing mechanism and convergence of payment systems among interested member states. Their subsequent status is one of the areas that can be followed through the 2026–27 SCO calendar.
Innovation enters a wider digital programme
Innovation and artificial intelligence form another part of Pakistan's chairmanship theme. The SCO's digital agenda is already developing through its own sectoral mechanisms.
An SCO Digital Economy Forum was held in Urumqi from September 14–16, 2026 under the theme “Promoting SCO Data Connectivity, Shaping the Future with AI.”
The SCO Secretariat said the forum addressed digital systems, trade, investment, entrepreneurship and innovation and highlighted the China–SCO Digital Economy Cooperation Platform in Tianjin.
Pakistan's stated emphasis on innovation and AI will therefore develop alongside existing SCO digital initiatives.
The coming meetings will indicate whether the Pakistani chairmanship produces additional proposals or agreements in this area and how they fit into the wider SCO programme.
SCO Digital Economy Forum, Urumqi
Data connectivity, digital systems, trade, investment, entrepreneurship, innovation and AI
China–SCO Digital Economy Cooperation Platform in Tianjin
Security remains part of the chairmanship
Pakistan's chairmanship also operates alongside the SCO's security mechanisms.
The country chaired the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Council in September before the rotating chairmanship passed to Russia.
The September 14 meeting in Islamabad discussed regional security and counterterrorism cooperation, while Pakistan's Foreign Office said decisions were adopted to strengthen information-sharing mechanisms and that agreement was reached on joint activities in 2027.
The CNC meeting itself included representatives of the SCO Secretariat and SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. The economic and connectivity agenda is therefore developing within a wider SCO programme that also includes security cooperation.
Preparing Islamabad for 2027
The second meeting provides the physical and administrative side of Pakistan's chairmanship. Dar reviewed preparations for hosting the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit in Islamabad in 2027 with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Bajwa, Secretary Defence, Acting Foreign Secretary, Chairman of the Capital Development Authority and senior Foreign Office officials.
He directed all concerned departments to ensure close coordination and timely completion of preparations according to agreed timelines. The presence of the Foreign Office, Defence Ministry and CDA places the summit preparations across diplomatic, security and Islamabad administration functions.
Pakistan's Foreign Office has said the country will host the SCO Heads of State Summit in Islamabad in August 2027. The summit therefore gives the chairmanship a fixed endpoint toward which the programme is now being organized.
Pakistan assumes SCO CHS chairmanship
First CNC meeting under Pakistan’s chairmanship
Programme of meetings and sectoral cooperation
SCO Council of Heads of State Summit, Islamabad
The year between the meetings
The first CNC meeting is the beginning of that coordination. During the coming months, Pakistan will chair or coordinate meetings involving the SCO's various political, economic, security, transport, energy, digital, cultural and humanitarian mechanisms.
Some work will concern programmes adopted before Pakistan assumed the chairmanship. Other initiatives will reflect priorities that Islamabad has placed under its theme of connectivity, innovation and shared prosperity.
The record will develop through the decisions taken at those meetings.
For Pakistan, today's meetings have established both sides of that schedule: coordination of the chairmanship programme and preparation for the 2027 summit.
What emerges between those two points will show which existing SCO programmes advance, which new proposals receive member-state agreement and which initiatives acquire identifiable implementation arrangements and timelines.
The Islamabad summit will provide the leaders’ forum for the work accumulated during Pakistan’s chairmanship.
- Image credit: Ministry of Foriegn Affairs, Pakistan
