Today, India will virtually host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will both attend the conference.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the meeting of the SCO Heads of State. Terrorism, regional security, and prosperity are among the primary themes scheduled to be on the agenda. The acronym coined by Prime Minister Modi at the 2018 SCO Qingdao Summit inspired India’s SCO chairmanship theme, SECURE. It stands for S: Security, E: Economic development, C: Connectivity, U: Unity, R: Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, E: Environmental protection.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will also participate in the summit this week. This comes at a time when the Russia-Ukraine war has completed over a war. India has condemned the war but has not voted against Russia at any forum.
Speaking to President Putin on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Uzbekistan last year, PM Modi said, “This is not the era of war”, a statement that even made to the G20 communique under the Indian presidency. In addition, Iran, Belarus and Mongolia have been invited as Observer States. As per the SCO tradition, Turkmenistan has also been invited as the guest of the Chair. Heads of the two SCO Bodies, the Secretariat and the SCO RATS, will also be present.
One of the major highlights of the summit, Pakistan and China have expressed their willingness to participate in the summit. Pakistan which has been isolated globally for harbouring terrorists, is set to attend the summit. Shehbaz Sharif will also participate in the SCO meeting. The invitation to the Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif was extended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan.
The participation of the two leaders comes at a time when China blocked a proposal by India and the United States at the United Nations to designate Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Sajid Mir, wanted for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, as a global terrorist, which also drew stern criticism from New Delhi. Two new mechanisms in SCO, Special Working Group on Startups and Innovation and Experts Working Group on Traditional Medicine, were created at India’s initiative.