SCO Summit to be held in China’s Qingdao port city in June

BEIJING, April 15 (APP):As the rotating president of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), China will host this year’s summit of the organization to be held in Qingdao, a port city, and a famous tourist spot, in June.
President, Mamnoon Hussain is likely to lead the delegation from Pakistan during the summit.
Prior to the summit, the SCO foreign ministers and defense ministers meetings will also be held separately in the Chinese capital on April 23-24.
They will be discussing the fight against the “three forces” of separatism, terrorism, and extremism, and other issues of common concern.
The SCO-member countries will also hold a Fanfare for Peace Military Tattoo in China and Peace Mission – 2018 Joint Counter-terrorism Military Exercise in Russia.
Chiefs of Defence Staff meeting and a working-level meeting on Drug Control of the SCO-member states will also be held this year.
The SCO, an inter-governmental organization, was founded in China’s Shanghai on June 15, 2001, is composed of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, India, and Pakistan.
India and Pakistan were admitted as full members of the organization at the summit in Astana last year.
It also has Afghanistan, Iran, and Mongolia as its observer states and Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners.
The driving philosophy for the SCO is the “Shanghai spirit,” which emphasizes harmony, working via consensus, respect for others cultures, non-interference in others internal affairs and nonalignment.
Its basic bureaucratic structure consists of two standing bodies: the Secretariat based in Beijing and overseen by a secretary general and the Regional Anti Terror Structure (RATS) with a staff based in Tashkent.
In 2004, the SCO created the official status of observer and brought Mongolia into its fold. India, Iran, and Pakistan joined as SCO observers the following year.
SCO in 2008 established regulations on dialogue partners and accepted Belarus and Sri Lanka as its inaugural dialogue partners in 2009.
The SCO has moved forward on some concrete areas of activity as well, such as security cooperation which includes counternarcotics, and cybersecurity besides, economic cooperation and emergency assistance.
The SCO charter adopted in 2002, defines the main purposes of the organization as “strengthening mutual trust, good neighbourliness and friendship among members states; developing effective cooperation in political affairs, economy, trade, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transport and environmental protection; and working together to maintain regional peace, security and stability.
The SCO focuses on security-related issues of the region especially on border security and counterterrorism cooperation.
The SCO has, as a group or with only a portion of the members, held security exercises since 2002. Some of the activities have been labelled “Anti-terror” exercises specifically, while others, usually larger and involving more countries, have been named “Peace Mission” exercises.
In March 2009, SCO-Afghanistan Action Plan was produced by a conference hosted by Moscow. The Action Plan called for joint operation to combat terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime.
After security exercises and a focus specifically on Afghanistan, the RATS, the SCO’s counterterrorists arm, has moved to achieve broader counterterrorism objectives, too.
It reportedly has advised several nationals on operation training, helped draft international legal documents to combat terrorism, and compiled a database of suspected or known terrorists and extremists for SCO member use.
The SCO has also been on the forefront to manage the Internet’s impact on governments, especially to counter its use for what it calls information terrorism.
In 2009, the SCO approved a cyber agreement which defined information war as an effort by one state to undermine another state’s political, economic and social systems.
The analysts say that Pakistan was keen to play its role in the SCO and that was evident from its high-level participation in various meetings and activities.
As the Peace Mission joint counter-terrorism exercise is scheduled to be held later this year, in Russia, other member states will benefit from its rich experience in tackling terrorism.
On the other hand, there remains a question mark on India’s approach to this multilateral forum.
Not only geographically, but functionally too, will India remain on the margin of SCO or make itself a useful member of the organization to the mutual benefit of all; remains the key question.
Given the role assigned to India by the U.S. in its Indo-Pacific strategy and the tentative approach exhibited so far, other member states will be keenly watching India.