AMN
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the 22nd Summit of the SCO Council of Heads of State on 4th July. It will be held in the virtual format. India assumed the rotating Chairmanship of SCO at the Samarkand Summit on 16 September last year. All the SCO Member States, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been invited to attend the Summit.
In addition, Iran, Belarus and Mongolia have been invited as Observer States. As per SCO tradition, Turkmenistan has also been invited as the guest of the Chair. Heads of the two SCO Bodies – the Secretariat and the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure RATS – will also be present. Further, Heads of six international and regional organizations have also been invited. The organisations are United Nations, Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN, Commonwealth of Independent States CIS, Collective Security Treaty Organization CSTO, Eurasian Economic Union EAEU and Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia CICA.
Ministry of External Affairs MEA said, the theme of the Summit is ‘Towards a SECURE SCO’. The SECURE acronym was coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2018 SCO Summit and stands for Security, Economy and Trade, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity and Environment. These themes have been highlighted during India’s Chairmanship of SCO.
The Ministry said, India has set up new pillars of cooperation under its Chairmanship – Startups and Innovation, Traditional Medicine, Digital Inclusion, Youth Empowerment, and Shared Buddhist Heritage. In addition, India has worked towards fostering greater people-to-people ties that celebrate the historical and civilizational bonds between the nations. These include the various socio-cultural events hosted by Varanasi under the framework of the first-ever SCO Cultural and Tourist Capital for 2022-23.
MEA said, India’s Chairmanship of SCO has been a period of intense activity and mutually beneficial cooperation between Member States. India has hosted a total of 134 meetings and events, including 14 Ministerial-level meetings. It said, India remains committed to play a positive and constructive role in the organization and looks forward to a successful SCO Summit as the culmination of its Chairmanship