Summit to be new government’s first major engagement
Staff Writer / New Delhi
The two days Bishkek Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit (SCO) from June 13-14 to focus on radicalism and terrorism.The summit will be the first major international engagement of the new Indian government
This forum will give India a chance to raise issues relating to terrorism, the stability of Afghanistan, and rising radicalism in Central Asian countries.
Members of the SCO include China, Russia, India, and Pakistan and the Central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan whose main focus is to join hands together to fight terrorism, separatism, and extremism. Both India and Pakistan became full members of the SCO in 2017.
During the summit, the listing of Masood Azhar, JeM’s chief who is based in Pakistan too will be discussed.
Later this year, the SCO member nations will be participating in a joint anti-terrorism exercise. A decision for this joint the exercise was taken earlier this year ‘Sary-Arka-Antiterror 2019’ at the 34th meeting of the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) council held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Also, plans were announced to hold the first level of the joint border operation “Solidarity 2019-2021,” where the heads of the border services, and training workshops on identifying and preventing the use of the Internet for terrorist, separatist and extremist purposes.
RATS is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against terrorism, separatism, and extremism and is headquartered in Tashkent.