Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has emphasized on joint cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on expanding its ambit to cover poverty alleviation and disaster relief. 

Addressing the Six-Country Foreign Ministers' Video Conference virtually today (Tuesday), he said regional collaboration, and multilateral cooperation are required for revival of our economies.

The Foreign Minister said Pakistan welcomes intensified cooperation between China and South Asian countries in these areas.

He said a China-South Asia Emergency Supplies Reserve would help all participating countries to better respond to health emergencies and natural disasters in the future.

He said a China-South Asia Poverty Alleviation Cooperative Development Center would provide the opportunity to learn from China's remarkable accomplishment in eradicating poverty from the country and also would help build institutional linkages and people-to-people contacts.

The Foreign Minister said South Asian countries are in dire need of enhanced regional cooperation toward off the pandemic, and to lift their people out of poverty through this platform.

Talking about Pakistan Pakistan's economic vision, he said we shifted from geopolitics to geo-economic and want to enhance regional cooperation and integration.

Concluding his remarks, the Foreign Minister said Pakistan reaffirms its resolve to further deepen mutual cooperation through this platform of six regional neighbouring countries, in pursuance of our common developmental goals.

The conference was attended by Foreign Ministers from China, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.