Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Grouping: Iran, Belarus to be Newest SCO Members

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)- Relevance for UPSC Exam

• GS Paper 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in News

• Iran and Belarus are likely to be the two newest additions to the China and Russia-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) grouping.

SCO Summit 2022- Inclusion of Iran and Belarus

• About: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit 2022 is planned to held in September 2022 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
• SCO Secretary-General: The current SCO Secretary-General, General Zhang Ming, a veteran Chinese diplomat.
• India and SCO Summit: India will host the SCO summit 2023 next year.
  • Varanasi has been selected as the SCO region’s first “Tourism and Cultural Capital”, a title it will hold next year coinciding with India chairing the SCO grouping.

Expansion of SCO Grouping

• Expanding the SCO group is among the issues that leaders of the grouping, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss in the SCO Summit 2022.
• Last year’s SCO summit in Dushanbe agreed for Iran to join, while Belarus has also begun the membership process.
• China, Russia and four Central Asian states — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — were the founding members of the SCO, while India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017 in its first round of expansion.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)- Key Points

• About SCO: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organization created through SCO Charter in 2002 and entered into force in 2003.
  • Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
  • Type: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic and military organization.
  • SCO Secretariat: Shanghai, China.
  • Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS): Tashkent
• Mandate: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) aims to maintain peace, security and stability in the region.

 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)- India’s association with SCO

• Observer state: India was made observer state in 2005 and was generally participated in the Inter-ministerial meetings of the SCO grouping.
• Member state: India along with Pakistan was upgraded to the member state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2017.

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 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)- Member States

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) comprises nine member states (recently, Iran has been accepted as the ninth full member) namely-

1. The Republic of India,
2. The Republic of Kazakhstan,
3. The People’s Republic of China,
4. The Kyrgyz Republic,
5. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
6. The Russian Federation,
7. The Republic of Tajikistan, and
8. The Republic of Uzbekistan
9. Iran

 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)- Observer States

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) counts four observer states, namely-

1. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,
2. The Republic of Belarus,
3. The Islamic Republic of Iran and
4. Mongolia

 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)- Dialogue Partners

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has six dialogue partners, namely-

1. The Republic of Azerbaijan,
2. The Republic of Armenia,
3. The Kingdom of Cambodia,
4. The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal,
5. The Republic of Turkey, and
6. The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

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