As the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), India will today host the meeting of National Security Advisors (NSA) and top officials in New Delhi. Pakistan and China are likely to attend the SCO-NSA meeting virtually.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will make opening remarks at the meeting, news agency ANI reported.
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.
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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.
While the SCO summit is set to take place in Goa this summer, India is holding a host of events leading up to it. The next important SCO meeting will be the defence ministers' meeting scheduled to be held in Delhi from April 27-29.