Union Minister of Power Sushilkumar Shinde will be representing India at the meeting of the Heads of Governments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in St. Petersburg on November 7.
The meeting is likely to consider providing full membership to India and Pakistan, granting ‘observer' status to Afghanistan and making Turkey a ‘dialogue partner.' A favourable decision would mean that but for Saudi Arabia and the UAE, all major regional players with a stake in Afghanistan would be involved with the SCO.
To be hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the meeting will be attended by Heads of Governments of the member-States of the SCO, namely, Russia, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan. While India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia are ‘observer States', Afghanistan is a ‘Special Invitee' at the forum.
The SCO was founded in 2001 at Shanghai. India joined this regional organisation as an ‘observer' in 2005 and has been a regular participant of its summits and meetings. Within the existing participatory mechanisms open to the observer countries, India has demonstrated its strong commitment to the SCO by engaging actively in several areas related to development and security.
