Shanghai Cooperation Organisation poised for major expansion
Sandeep Dikshit
New Delhi, July 29
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is poised for a major expansion five years after India and Pakistan became its full members in 2017.
Iran will get full member status, becoming the ninth member of the SCO and the process has also started for giving Belarus full membership. Afghanistan and Mongolia are also pushing for an upgrade from observer status to full membership.
EAM highlights support for Afghanistan
- Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto shared the table at the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting
- The EAM highlighted India’s support to the people of Afghanistan with vaccines, wheat
- He also welcomed Iran’s entry into the group, especially with SCO members now able to use Chabahar port
- Jaishankar held a bilateral meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi
None of the other countries on the list will get full member status. They are poised to get observer status and dialogue partner status, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamilov said on the sidelines of the ongoing SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will sign pacts to get dialogue partner status and the process of giving Bahrain and Maldives the same status will begin at the Samarkand SCO Summit to be held in September, Kamilov said. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal will get observer status.
From the Indian subcontinent, this will mean four countries in the SCO — India, Pakistan, Nepal and the Maldives.
Commenting on the proposed expansion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, “It is especially symbolic that a kind of line is being formed for the summit among those wishing to become full members of the SCO or join as observers and dialogue partners.”
The meet is being attended, among others, by S Jaishankar (India,) Wang Yi (China), Russia’s Sergey Lavrov (Russia) and Bilawal Bhutto (Pakistan).
Meanwhile, Jaishankar held a bilateral meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi after reaching Samarkand on Thursday. The Chinese Foreign Minister has met Taliban Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who said the territory of Afghanistan would no longer pose a threat to states in the region.
The Foreign Ministers’ meeting will prepare for the SCO summit on September 15-16 in Samarkand, which is likely to be attended by PM Narendra Modi, besides Chinese and Russian Presidents. They will also review the expansion of the SCO and exchange ideas on regional and global developments of common concern, said a release.
