Amidst a fierce stand-off between India and China, New Delhi hosted a summit of the council of heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on November 30 with a focus on contributing to the trade and economic agenda of the influential grouping. Here is all you need to know about the SCO and relevance of India hosting its annual summit.
What is Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
* The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a Eurasian permanent intergovernmental international organisation created in June 2001, in Shanghai, China by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and China. The SCO was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
* The SCO aims to strengthen mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states by promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and regional stability and security.
* Known as the "alliance of the East", the SCO is the largest regional organisation in the world in terms of geographical coverage and population, covering three-fifths of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the human population. SCO represents around 42 per cent of the world's population and 20 per cent of the global GDP. The SCO is seen as a counter-balance to Nato, limiting the influence of United States of America (USA) in Central Asia.
* Other than the member states, SCO has four observer states (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia) and six dialogue partners (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka).
* SCO has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.
* The Heads of State Council (HSC) 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. The SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss the organisation's multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas.
Relevance of India hosting SCO HGC meeting
India is hosted the SCO council of heads of government meet on November 30 in the midst of the stand-off at Ladakh border with China. India was an observer state at the SCO since 2005 and was admitted as a full member of the SCO in 2017. India's membership was pushed by Russia which was aiming to counter China's growing influence in the region. However, with changes in the geopolitical realities since 2014, India aims to stay involved in the SCO to balance the growing closeness between Russia and China even as India has got closer to the US. The SCO membership allows India to expand its footprint in Central Asian region and hosting the Summit brings an opportunity for India to strengthen trade relations with Central Asian countries which are energy-rich nations. Given India's commitment to countering terrorism, the SCO also provides India a platform to raise cross-border terrorism sourced in Pakistan.
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