PM arrives in Kazakhstan, will participate in SCO summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at Kazakhstan capital Astana to participate in the 2-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit where India will become a full member of the organisation.

In his departure statement, Prime Minister said, ‘I will travel to Astana, Kazakhstan for two days on 8-9 June for the Summit meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation(SCO).”

‘At this meeting, on completion of process, India will become a full member of the SCO upon which SCO will represent over 40% of humanity and nearly 20% of global GDP’.

‘I look forward to deepening India’s association with the SCO which will help us in economic, connectivity and counter-terrorism co-operation, among other things’.

‘On evening of June 9, I will also attend the inauguration of the Astana Expo with the theme of ‘Future Energy’.

Shanghai Co-operation Organisation was set up in 2001 with the goal to foster security co-operation between the member nations. Over the years it has expanded its focus to include areas related to economic co-operation.

With India set to become a full member of the grouping in the upcoming Astana summit. The organisation would become, India’s gateway to Eurasia and Central Asia.

On Friday at the Astana summit, India and Pakistan will join the club of SCO’s 6 member states Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyztan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

After India applied for SCO membership in 2014, the proposal to accept it as a full member of SCO was adopted the following year at the Ufa summit in Russia. At the Taskent summit last year, India signed the Memorandum of Obligations to enable its entry into the SCO.

The announcement of India’s full membership of SCO on Friday will culminate the inclusion process and give more heft to the grouping.

By becoming a full member of SCO, India stands to gain in the spheres of security, economy, trade, investment, connectivity and energy co-operation.

The admission of India and Pakistan will enlarge the group’s footprints for the first time to South Asia from Central Asia and will cover half of the world’s population.

SCO is the world’s first grouping dedicated to security, political and economic co-operation.

Its Secretariat is based in Beijing and SCO’s Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) is based in Tashkent.

RATS is manned by professionals analysing key intelligence inputs on the movements of terror outfits, drug-trafficking, cyber security threats, etc. in the region.

SCO member states also participate in joint exercises against terrorism.

While India and Pakistan will become its full members. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia will continue to be its 4 observer states.

In Astana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to hold bilateral talks with leaders, on the sidelines of the SCO summit.

All eyes are on an expected bilateral meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping and on whether issues like India’s NSG membership would come up at the meeting.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will also attend the SCO summit in Astana.

The MEA maintains that no meeting between PM Modi and PM Sharif has been proposed by either side so far.

The Astana summit is expected to build up on security, economic and cultural relations between member states. But considering the threat of terrorism in the region, counter-terrorism may well be a major focus area.