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By Geeta Mohan: Foreign ministers of eight member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will be meeting in Goa on Thursday and Friday, May 4 and 5. This crucial meeting will set the stage for the SCO Leaders’ Summit to be held in July in New Delhi.
With India as the host, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar landed a day early on Wednesday to oversee the preparations and held a series of internal meetings ahead of the SCO ministerial and the bilateral meetings which would take place on the sidelines of the SCO.
The theme of India’s Chairmanship of SCO in 2023 is ‘SECURE-SCO’. India attaches special importance to SCO in promoting multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interactions in the region.
“The ongoing engagement with SCO has helped India promote its relations with the countries in the region with which India has shared civilizational linkages, and is considered India’s extended neighbourhood,” said an official statement.
“SCO pursues its policy based on the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations, non-interference in internal affairs, equality of all member States and mutual understanding and respect for opinions of each of them,” it added.
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ADDING ENGLISH AS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Since becoming a full member of the SCO in 2017, India has been nudging the bloc to add ‘English’ as an official language of communication. The first such proposal was placed in 2020, necessitated by the inclusion of India and Pakistan as full members to a grouping that has had only Russian and Mandarin as the official and working languages of the bloc which was founded by Russia, China and four Central Asian nations where Russian language is widely in use.
On the agenda for the SCO under India’s presidency will also be modernisation of the grouping with focus on advanced technology and digital infrastructure. The agenda also includes discussions with regional counterparts on various regional, security, and political issues.
India, since becoming a member in 2017, has persistently pushed for the strengthening of collaboration on issues pertaining to regional security, defence, and combating terrorism, among others.
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TENTATIVE PROGRAM
The foreign ministers and their delegations will start arriving in Goa on May 4. All the delegations will be staying at Taj Exotica in Benaulim, which is where the meetings are going to be held.
S Jaishankar will be hosting dinner for the visiting dignitaries. It is still not confirmed if Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto will attend the gathering. The official engagements begin on May 5 with the arrival of foreign ministers and heads of delegations at the meeting venue, followed by a group photo.
The meeting of the council of foreign ministers (CFM) will begin in the morning and by noon the ‘decision document’ will be signed, which will be followed by a working lunch.
The event will conclude with the signing of a Memorandum with New Dialogue Partners. The leaders will then hold various bilateral meetings with their respective counterparts from other nations.
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India is expected to hold three bilateral meetings on May 4 – with SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming during the first half of the day, with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov around 3pm, followed by a bilateral meeting with Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang (time not confirmed). S Jaishankar is expected to hold other bilateral meetings on May 5.
Since its inception in 1996, SCO has grown, expanded, and emerged as one of the largest regional organisations. SCO member countries account for about 30 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world’s population.
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