PrintFriendly
India, under its first ever presidency of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, hosted the 23rd meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State on 5 July. The Summit was held in the virtual format. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and was attended by the Presidents of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Prime Minister of Pakistan. Heads of State of SCO Observers namely Iran, Belarus, and Mongolia and Turkmenistan participated as guest chair. Heads of two permanent standing bodies of the SCO, Secretary General of SCO and Director, SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, RATS, plus Heads of international and regional organizations including the UN Secretary General; Heads of CICA, that is Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia; CSTO, Collective Security Treaty Organization; CIS, Commonwealth of Independent States, and Eurasian Economic Commission, they also attended the meeting.
PM highlights India’s contribution to SCO
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi underlined India’s contribution to SCO, especially in the last six years as Member State, highlighted the new spheres of cooperation introduced and nurtured by India in the SCO, especially in the field of startup and innovation, traditional medicine, youth empowerment, digital inclusion, and shared Buddhist heritage of SCO Member States, need to work together to eliminate the menace of terrorism in the region and globally, in consistency with Article 1 of the SCO Charter, equivocally condemn terrorism and eliminate safe havens, flow of finance to such activities, fight against terrorism as the basic mandate of SCO still remains a central goal of SCO, something that was underlined and emphasized by the Prime Minister and also echoed in the room by other countries. All the leaders welcomed the completion of procedure for Iran to join as the organization’s full Member State. Prime Minister also congratulated President Raisi on this occasion. The leaders also welcomed the decision on signing the Memorandum of Obligation of Belarus to join the organization as a Member State. The process of Belarus membership will be completed by 2024 SCO Summit next year.
As the outcome of the Summit, the leaders adopted the New Delhi Declaration and two thematic joint statements – one on cooperation in countering radicalization, leading to separatism, extremism, and terrorism, and the second one on cooperation in the field of digital transformation.
5 initiatives proposed by India, adopted in SCO
The five initiatives that were proposed by India and adopted at these Ministerial level meetings under India’s presidency. The first was on the concept of the development of digital public infrastructure, DPIs, for the promotion of digital technologies among the population, in particular, digital inclusion and innovation. This is something which found mention and was echoed by almost all the leaders in the summit proceedings.
Two, on the cooperation among the SCO Member States on emerging fuels. Three, on working together to combat the challenges of climate change, plastic pollution, marine plastic litter, air pollution, with focus on resource efficiency and circular economy. Related to that, but in a more action-oriented sequence, decarbonizing the transport infrastructure, promoting digital transformation and innovative technologies, again, for efficiency and higher sustainability through cooperation among the SCO Member States. And lastly, the first ever report on digital financial inclusion policies in the SCO Member States was taken. Besides, there was also a substantial segment of socio-cultural activities during India’s presidency. This included SCO Millets Festival in Mumbai, SCO Film Festival, SCO Culture Showcasing at Suraj Kund Mela, SCO Tourism Mart, SCO Conference on Traditional Medicine. And all these initiatives and events held under India’s presidency received quite remarkable and robust response from the SCO Member States.