The 23rd Meeting of SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) was held on 16 October 2024 in Islamabad under the chairmanship of Pakistan.
- The SCO CHG meeting is held annually and focuses on the trade and economic agenda of the Organization.
- External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar represented India at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting in Islamabad.
- Mr. Jaishankar urged SCO members to have an “honest conversation” about the state of the SCO region, which represents 40% of the global population and is the world’s largest such regional group.
- Jaishankar, the first Indian foreign minister to travel to Islamabad in almost a decade, didn’t hold any bilateral meetings with the Pakistani leadership.
- India didn’t join the other nine members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in backing China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) connectivity and infrastructure initiative.
- The joint communique issued at the conclusion of the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, hosted by Pakistan, said the other member states backed the OBOR and efforts to link the China-led initiative with the Eurasian Economic Union.
- The SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting will move to Russia in 2025, while the SCO Heads of State summit will be held in China.
- The statement said Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reaffirmed “support for the People’s Republic of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative”, and “noted ongoing work on joint implementation of the project, including efforts to bridge the Eurasian Economic Union and OBOR”.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental international organization established on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai (PRC) by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
- Its predecessor was the mechanism of the Shanghai Five.
- Currently, the SCO countries includes: 9 Member States — India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. The official languages of the SCO are Russian and Chinese.
