Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said that Pakistan will host the next Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in 2027, as he urged the authorities to start preparations for it in the national capital.

Sharif made the announcement while addressing a road development project in Rawat area of Rawalpindi. “We have to start preparing now,” the prime minister said. “We need to build accommodation and beautify Islamabad,” he added.

He did not give a date for the summit, which is held by the member states.

The announcement to host the next summit comes less than a fortnight after the SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, where Pakistan raised the issue of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).

India has kept the IWT treaty in abeyance after the Pahalgam terror attack in April in which 26 people were killed.

The SCO member states in a declaration also strongly condemned the Pahalgam terror attack and concurred with India’s position that “double standards” in the fight against terrorism are unacceptable.

The influential grouping also condemned the terror attacks in Khuzdar and on Jaffer Express, both in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Pakistan last hosted the SCO in 2024 for the Council of Heads of Government Summit, where Sharif called for investing in the region’s collective capacity for connectivity.

The government had declared a three-day holiday for the summit.

Founded in Shanghai in June 2001, the SCO has expanded from six founding members into a 26-nation family of 10 members, two observers and 14 dialogue partners spanning Asia, Europe and Africa.

With major emerging markets and developing countries such as China, Russia and India among its members, the SCO represents nearly half of the world’s population and a quarter of the global economy.