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India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar will represent country at the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which will be held virtually on Tuesday, Nov. 1.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will host the meeting in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian announced Monday. At present, India is holding SCO Presidency which began in September 2022 and will culminate in September 2023 when India will host the Meeting of the Council of Heads of State, also known as the SCO Summit. SCO Heads of State meeting and Heads of Government meeting are two topmost important gatherings of the group held annually.
The SCO Heads of Government meeting focuses on the trade and economic agenda of the Organization 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. India remains actively engaged in various SCO activities/dialogue mechanisms in the region as well as other multilateral cooperation within the SCO framework, a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.
After becoming SCO member in 2017, India successfully hosted the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting on 30 November 2020. This resulted in important outcomes including first-ever initiatives like SCO Startup Forum, Young Scientists Conclave, Consortium of Economic Think-tanks, Traditional Medicine, Buddhist Heritage Exhibition, and translation of Indian literature into Russian and Chinese. Among other initiatives, India’s diplomatic outreach to the SCO countries also leveraged the soft power of Indian cinema in the region which has turned out to be a great success. A proposal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an ‘SCO Film Festival’ is also under consideration by the Member States.
On Tuesday, the heads of government and representatives of SCO member states and observer states, heads of SCO permanent organs, the SCO Entrepreneurs’ Committee and the SCO Interbank Consortium, and representatives of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and other international institutions and organizations will attend the meeting upon invitation, the Chinese spokesperson announced. Further, in response to a question, Mr. Zhao said, at present, the world is facing changes and pandemics – both unseen in a century and a sluggish economic recovery.
It is regional countries’ hope that the SCO can demonstrate a strong sense of responsibility and contribute even more to protecting national security and development interests. Against this backdrop, Premier Li Keqiang will have an in-depth exchange of views with other leaders on implementing the outcomes of the SCO summit in September (hosted by China), and on advancing SCO security, economic and cultural cooperation to come up with new ideas and new measures, he added.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a Eurasian political, economic, and security group. China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan were the founding members of the SCO with its headquarters in Beijing, while India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017 in its first round of expansion. SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming in July said that he expected to see a Memorandum of Obligations of Iran joining the SCO be passed at the Samarkand summit which will be the second round of SCO expansion.
Belarus has also applied for SCO membership. He said that legal process regarding Belarus’ application for SCO membership will soon start, but it will require the consensus of all member states. He said, the significance of this round of expansion is that it shows the SCO’s rising international influence and that the principles of the SCO charter are being widely accepted.