India took over the Presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

New Delhi– The presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has been handed over to India. New Delhi will host the post for a year until September 2023. Now the SCO leaders signed the summer can declarations ceiling this decision. This paves way for organizers to start planning next year’s summit. But before that, a national coordinators meeting will take place today. It will be a two-day hybrid event in New Delhi.

Some persistent issues will be relayed from previous meetings, like turbulence in global financial markets, instability in supply chains, COVID-19 pandemic climate change and a major focus will be on Eurasia. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization came into being in 2001. It has nine countries as its members, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Iran became the latest member of the grouping just this year.

A national coordinators meeting was held in New Delhi, a 2-day hybrid event.

This is the first such national coordinators meeting under the Indian Presidency of the grouping the presidency that was handed over at the summer Summit in September of this year, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present.

Now, the key focus area will be first of course what direction the Indian presidency will be going, given that India has key focus areas. When it comes to leading the various international groupings, issues like counterterrorism trade, and connectivity will be featured very highly on India’s agenda.

As it begins key meetings on the SCO we know that you are next year India will be hosting the summit. But before the summit, there will be several other meetings as well the defense ministers meeting the foreign ministers meeting, the meeting of the interior ministers and the NSA meeting as well the national security advisors of these countries will also be meeting.

But nonetheless, it will be an occasion for India to also showcase its culture given that for the first time SCO cultural city, which is Varanasi has announced this under the Indian presidency. So we can see a lot of control aspects as well. But essentially, if I define the national coordinator beings are the Shapers as we have seen in G20. And take forward the meeting points or agendas of each country, from the Indian side it will be Yojna Patel, who is India’s SCO national coordinator.

Well, the key focus area will be the issue of counterterrorism, connectivity, and trade. But if I can elaborate specifically on connectivity, this has been India’s focus area when it comes to SCO groupings, because for India, when it comes to this grouping, Central Asia is the key aspect that India has been focusing on its cultural affinity to that region and its connectivity to that region.

And for that, we have seen India several times pointing out Chabahar Port, and how this port can be used in terms of connectivity in the region. Now, Iran has become the latest member of the grouping.

And when India hosts the summit next year, Iran will be sitting along with other members of the grouping as a full-fledged member. So Iran has, of course, a key focus on connectivity itself, and Chabahar Port that connects it with India, we’ll be providing that leverage in terms of connectivity.

But there are other issues like counterterrorism, we know that earlier this month, India hosted the anti-terror drills of the SCO where of course Pakistan was also present. There was the executive meeting of SCO RAS that’s regional anti-terror, meeting the conference that takes place.

And also when it comes to trade as well India’s scheme that there is more engagement, there is more trade in the region. And for that, of course, again, we come back to connectivity in terms of increasing connectivity in the region.

Photos Source- Twitter.com/M_Lekhi