"The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) is a grouping which has tremendous significance," Shaukat told reporters after attending a meeting of the SCO in Moscow, where India, Iran and Pakistan were represented for the first time with formal observer status, the first step in full membership.
The prime minister said Pakistan was looking forward to becoming a full member of the SCO that provides regional countries a platform to share ideas on economic, security and diplomatic co-operation.
Shaukat, echoing comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, said the countries of the SCO comprised around half the world's population and forecast that the organisation would emerge as a dominant actor in the region.
"We think a grouping of this magnitude can help in influencing events in the region, build economic co-operation, build security co-operation and leverage the full potential of the area," the prime minister said.
The SCO comprises China, Russia and four strategic former Soviet republics in Central Asia, with India, Iran and Pakistan now on track to join. It was this body that called early this year for the United States to set a date for the withdrawal of its military forces in Central Asia.
Although Shaukat identified international co-ordination of efforts to fight terrorism as one of the fundamental purposes of the SCO, the United States - the country that launched the so-called international war on terror and a major Asian power - is pointedly not represented in the body.
But the prime minister downplayed this fact, saying the new organisation was focused on promoting economic growth and development among the members countries, several of which are leading global energy producers, and it was 'paranoia' to see any anti-US dimension to it.
"I do not get the sense that this organisation is designed against anybody, or is a counterweight to anybody," he said. "I view the whole approach of the SCO as a very positive approach" to boosting security and economic links among the powers in the region.
The SCO Moscow meeting, however, comes amid growing signs of geopolitical competition, largely between China, Russia and the United States, for influence in Central Asia, drawing comparisons to the "Great Game" struggles among imperial and regional powers of the 19th century in the same area.
Russia held its first-ever joint military exercises with China earlier this year and more recently did the same with India. Russia is also the key foreign player in development of Iran's controversial nuclear energy programme.
Shaukat said there were no plans to organise joint Russian-Pakistani military manoeuvres inside or outside of the SCO, but left the door open to the possibility that Islamabad, traditionally closely allied with the United States, could boost weapons purchases from Russia.
"Russia has very world-class capability in weaponry," he said, adding that the two countries had held discussions about increasing bilateral arms trade.
"Pakistan has limited needs. Should there be a need, which Russia can fulfil, then we will approach them," he said. But he added that joint military exercises were at present "not the function or requirement of the SCO".
Shaukat said that Pakistan is pleased with the pledges by international donors to provide additional funds to assist earthquake victims, but hopes the aid effort will continue.
"The Government of Pakistan is very pleased with the support" announced on Wednesday at a meeting in Geneva, where donors promised an additional $580 million after the United Nations and relief agencies warned funding so far was woefully inadequate.
Pakistan was "eternally grateful" for the assistance provided so far to the victims of the October 8 earthquake, which left tens of thousands of people dead and hundreds of thousands of people living in remote and mountainous areas cut-off from the world, he said.
"We are very encouraged" by the meeting in Geneva, Shaukat told a group of reporters after attending a meeting in Moscow, adding: "Naturally we hope the process will continue. It is a major human tragedy we are dealing with."
He said the Government of Pakistan was addressing the disaster on two levels: a short-term rescue and relief effort, currently in progress, and a longer-term reconstruction and rehabilitation that would require more international assistance in future.
"The good news is that nobody is short of food and medicines at present," he said.
But large parts of basic infrastructure such as roads in the earthquake-hit zone had been either severely damaged or entirely obliterated, and UN estimates said it would take "billions of dollars and five to 10 years" just to restore the basics in the region, he said.
Officials say it not clear how much of the new aid is earmarked for the UN's $550 million appeal for emergency relief aid over the next six months and how much is for other efforts, including long-term reconstruction.