PremiumIndia remains actively engaged in various SCO activities/dialogue mechanisms in the region as well as other multilateral cooperation within the SCO framework
NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on will represent India at the virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) council of heads of government on Tuesday.
According to a press release by the Ministry of External Affairs, “the SCO CHG meeting held annually focuses on the trade and economic agenda of the Organisation and approves its annual budget...The meeting will be attended by SCO member states, observer states, secretary general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), Turkmenistan and other invited guests.“
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was founded by the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China and several Central Asian republics in the 1990s. It initially aimed to function as a mini-lateral body that would build trust and reduce tensions between these erstwhile rivals in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War. The organisation was formally christened as the SCO in 2001 and India joined the grouping in 2017 as a full member. Pakistan is also a full member of the body.
The SCO is led by three separate leadership bodies. The supreme body is the SCO Heads of State Council which defines the priorities and general areas of cooperation. A meeting of this body took place in September and was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The other two leadership bodies are the SCO heads of government council and the SCO foreign ministers council.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, “India remains actively engaged in various SCO activities/dialogue mechanisms in the region as well as other multilateral cooperation within the SCO framework."