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Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
Why is it in news?
- India hosted Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) head of government meeting. It was chaired by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
- PM Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart skipped the meeing.
Details:
- Observation by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
(1) The most important challenge faced by us in the region is terrorism, particularly cross-border terrorism. Terrorism is truly the enemy of humanity. It is a scourge we need to collectively combat.
(2) We remain concerned about threats emerging from ungoverned spaces and are particularly concerned about states that leverage terrorism as an instrument of state policy.
- A joint communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, however, made no reference to terrorism.
About SCO
- Nature: Intergovernmental permanent organisation.
- Creation:
- Founding members: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
- Member states (8): India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
- Recent addition: India and Pakistan officially joined this organisation in 2017in Astana.
- Main goals: Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, etc.; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region, etc.
- Working:
(1) Heads of State Council (HSC): It 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.
(2) Heads of Government Council (HGC): It meets once a year to discuss the organisation's multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas, to resolve current important economic and other cooperation issues.
(3) 2 permanent bodies: SCO Secretariat- based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS)-based in Tashkent.