SCO: Indian perspective and challenges ahead

The 23rd meeting of the councils of the head of the Government of Shanghai cooperation organisation was held in Islamabad from 15 to 16th October 2024 under the presidency of the host country Pakistan.

The SCO Summit was held under the shadow of internal turmoil against the government due to the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and the country's deteriorating economic condition. The summit had significance being held under the dark clouds of ongoing conflicts of Ukraine-Russia in eastern Europe as well as theongoing Israel-Hamas and Israel-Iran conflicts.

Another challenge before the SCO Summit was to formulate the mechanism to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Over and above, the state-sponsored terrorist activities in southeast Asia and SCO countries remained a herculean task to handle.

The SCO Summit was attended by the heads of the states or prime ministers of member countries excluding India from where the external affairs minister distance Jai Shankar represented India. The member countries including Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan participated in this summit. Mongolia was part of the Summit as anobserver state whereas Turkmenistan attended the Summit as an invited guest. SCO Secretary General, Chairman, interbank Union, chairman of the Business Council and Executive Committee, and Director of the SCO RATS Committee were also in attendance.