Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The much-awaited SCO Summit is likely to be over in about two hours on Tuesday. After India decided to host it virtually, most members who were gearing up to travel to Delhi will now have around 10 minutes each to talk, deliberate and agree on issues that would translate into the joint declaration.
The summit that is being organised under India’s chairmanship will now be more like a conference where leaders won’t be able to have bilaterals on the sidelines – like in Samarkand last September. Discussions are likely to be held around issues ranging from terrorism to security, trade and politics.
The virtual summit to be anchored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin (who according to the Kremlin was gearing up to attend the summit in person), Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif among other heads of state.
PM Modi and President Putin had a telephonic conversation recently, taking stock of the situation in Russia post the minor rebellion caused by the Wagner group and also about the need to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. India’s relations with Pakistan are at an all-time low due to terrorism while those with China are not ‘normal’ as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar keeps reiterating due to the LAC standoff.
“India has been too consumed by the G20 and its upcoming summit, which is the probable reason for them to push the SCO Summit into a virtual mode,” lamented an SCO member.
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Last year, in the Samarkand Summit, besides the joint declaration, a record number of agreements, concepts and programs had been adopted. Around 44 documents were signed. India has hosted over 100 meetings under its SCO chairmanship and most were in-person meetings. The most well known was the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting held in Goa – which was attended by Sergey Lavrov, Bilawal Bhutto and Qin Gang.
SCO is the world’s largest regional organisation in terms of area, covering approximately 60 per cent of Eurasia and 42 per cent of the world population, representing 25 per cent of the global GDP, 25 per cent of the world’s oil reserves and 50 per cent of natural gas and uranium deposits. Iran will join as a member of the group on Tuesday.
The subjects on which the members will deliberate include terrorism, the security situation in Afghanistan, enhancing cooperation between SCO states and improving connectivity through multi-modal routes.
The theme for India’s Presidency is ‘SECURE’ which is an abbreviation for security, economic development, connectivity, unity, respect for soverignity and territorial integrity and environmental protection. India has also been pushing for deeper cooperation on de-radicalisation strategies.
Members of the SCO include India, Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikstan. Their dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Turkey. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt are likely to be added as dialogue partners.
SCO members are hoping that the significance of the summit is not diluted in the future.
