India to host SCO-National Security Advisors meeting today; Pakistan, China likely to join virtually

NEW DELHI: India, as the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), is set to host a meeting of National Security Advisors (NSA) and top officials in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Pakistan and China are likely to attend the SCO-NSA meeting virtually. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will make opening remarks at the meeting. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental organization established in 2001 and it comprises eight member states, namely, India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In 2022, India assumed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Chairship for 2023. Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, will attend the annual meeting of the secretaries of security councils of SCO member states in New Delhi on Wednesday, according to a statement by Russian Security Council, a Russian embassy official confirmed to ANI.

India became a full member of SCO on June 9 in 2017. There are four Observer States viz Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia and six dialogue partners – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a major regional powerhouse that was established over two decades ago with the aim of promoting economic, political, and military cooperation among its member nations. The eight-member countries of SCO represent around 42 per cent of the world’s total population and 25 per cent of the global GDP. Earlier this month, Pakistan also attended the meeting of heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tourism administrations held in Kashi.

Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Culture and Sports Yerzhan Yerkinbayev, China’s Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Lu Ying Chuan, Kyrgyzstan’s Deputy Minister of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy Samat Bekturovich Shatmanov and Uzbekistan’s First Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Azamov Ulugbek Axmatovich in person attended the meeting of heads of the SCO tourism administrations held in Kashi.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Evgenyvich Ilyichev, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Economic Development, Russia, Muminzod Kamoliddin, Chairman of the Tourism Development Committee, Tajikistan and Aun Chaudhry, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Tourism and Sports, Pakistan, virtually participated in the SCO meeting held in Kashi earlier this month, according to Tourism Ministry’s press release.

While the SCO summit is set to take place in Goa this summer, India is holding a host of events leading up to it. Notably, the next important SCO meeting will be the defence ministers’ meeting scheduled to be held in Delhi from April 27-29. (ANI)