An opening remark before the SCO NSA-level meeting is scheduled to be held today, according to the latest news published in NDTV. India is the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and will take the responsibility of hosting this meeting of the NSA (National Security Advisors) along with some other top officials. Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser will head this meeting.
Pakistan has decided to participate in this NSA meeting of the SCO, according to a source hosted by India at the NCR region. The mode of participation is yet not decided and is to be finalized, as sources confirmed. Pakistani representatives will also participate in this meeting. The next important SCO meet will be held on 27th April-29th April and it will be the Defence Minister’s meet, again to be hosted in Delhi.
An intergovernmental organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, was established in 2001. The eight member states of the SCO are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India became a full SCO member on 9th June 2017. Four observer states namely Belarus, Iran, Mongolia and Afghanistan with six dialogue partners- Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia are also present under it.
The SCO is a major regional powerhouse that was established over two decades ago with the motto of enhancing and promoting political, economic and military cooperation among all its member nations. Around 42% of the world’s population is represented by its 8 member countries and 25 % of the global GDP. Nikolai Patrushev who is the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, will be present in this secretaries annual meet of security councils of SCO member states. This statement by Russian Security Council was confirmed by a Russian embassy. The official of The Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi remarked, during a briefing in February that India has the presidency in the SCO, and it expects all member countries with Pakistan to attend the events under this chairmanship. He also responded by saying that India holds the current presidency in the SCO and as customary; we extend invites to all SCO countries, even Pakistan. So they must attend the events.
While speaking to the weekly media officers, he also said that previously too Pakistani officials have attained such events, although the names aren’t confirmed they will be revealed later. Formal invitations have been sent by our country to all members’ nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization including China and Pakistan for the SCO meet upcoming in the following months. The SCO Summit is finalized to be held in summer in Goa. India is taking part in hosting a number of events for this meet and looking forward to it.
In March, this year, Pakistan has already attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Tourism Administration meeting of the head officials, held in Kashi. In the 5th multilateral Meeting of Secretaries of Security Councils and National Security Advisers that was held in Afghanistan at Moscow in February, Ajit Doval urged for the immediate set up of an inclusive representative government in Kabul. This was in need for collective efforts to fight terrorism. During his Russia visit, he also agreed to continue work towards implanting a strategic partnership with India-Russia.
