20th Summit of SCO Council of Heads of State was held on November 10, 2020 (in Video Conference Format). The Meeting was chaired by the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi led the Indian delegation. 

Other SCO Member States were represented by their Presidents, while India and Pakistan were represented at the level of Prime Minister. Other participants were: 

    • Secretary General of the SCO Secretariat, 

    • Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, - the Presidents of the four Observers (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Mongolia) of the SCO.

Highlights

    • This was the first SCO Summit held in Virtual Format and third meeting that India participated after becoming a full member in 2017.

    • India highlighted the imperative of a reformed multilateralism to meet the expectation of a world suffering from the social and financial after-effects of the pandemic.

    • India, as a non-permanent member of the UNSC, beginning from 1 January 2021, will focus on the theme of ‘reformed multilateralism’ to bring about desirable changes in global governance.

    • Prime Minister reiterated India’s firm belief in regional peace, security and prosperity and raising voice against terrorism, smuggling of illegal weapons, drugs and money-laundering.

    • He mentioned that India’s brave soldiers participated in about 50 UN peacekeeping missions and India's Pharma industry supplying essential medicines to more than 150 countries during the pandemic.

    • India reiterated its firm commitment towards strengthening connectivity in the region with initiatives like International North-South Transport Corridor, Chabahar Port and Ashgabat Agreement and also asked fellow members to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other.

    • India also extended full support to observing the 20th anniversary of SCO in 2021 as the "SCO Year of Culture” and spoke of India’s own initiatives to hold the first SCO exhibition on Shared Buddhist Heritage to be organized by National Museum of India, SCO Food Festival in India next year and the translation of Ten regional language literary works into Russian and Chinese.

    • Prime Minister expressed India’s readiness to host the next regular Meeting of SCO Council of Heads of Government on November 30, 2020 in virtual format.

    • India has also proposed to set up a Special Working Group on Innovation and Startups and a Sub Group on Traditional Medicine within SCO.

    • Prime Minister congratulated President Emomali Rahmon of the Republic of Tajikistan for assuming the chairmanship of SCO next year and assured full cooperation from India.

About SCO

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.

The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation. The SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss the organisation's multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas, to resolve current important economic and other cooperation issues, and also to approve the organisation's annual budget. The SCO's official languages are Russian and Chinese.

Thus, currently:

    • the SCO comprises eight member states, namely India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan;

    • the SCO counts four observer states, namely the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Mongolia;

    • the SCO has six dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Republic of Turkey, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Major Objectives are:

    • Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states

    • Promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas

    • Making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region

    • Moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)