{"id":35271,"date":"2023-05-06T10:14:55","date_gmt":"2023-05-06T04:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=35271"},"modified":"2025-04-20T23:17:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T17:47:46","slug":"sco-foreign-ministers-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sco-foreign-ministers-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"SCO Foreign Ministers\u2019 Meet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About Shanghai\u00a0 Cooperation Organisation (SCO)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Objectives of SCO<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Organizational Structure of SCO<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Member Countries of SCO<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Significance\u00a0 of SCO<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Significance\u00a0 of SCO For India<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) took place in <strong>Goa<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>India is holding the chairmanship of the SCO for the year 2023.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, established in <strong>2001<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is built on the foundation laid by the Shanghai<strong> Five<\/strong> grouping of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.<\/li>\n<li>The five countries had come together to work on regional security, reduction of border troops, and terrorism in the post-Soviet era in 1996.<\/li>\n<li>In 2001, the \u201cShanghai Five\u201d inducted Uzbekistan into the group and named it the SCO, outlining its principles in a charter that promoted what was called the \u201c<strong>Shanghai spirit<\/strong>\u201d of cooperation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Objectives of SCO<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>To strengthen mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states<\/li>\n<li>To promote effective cooperation in politics, trade &amp; economy, research &amp; technology and culture<\/li>\n<li>To enhance ties in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, etc.<\/li>\n<li>To maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region<\/li>\n<li>To establish a democratic, fair and rational new international political &amp; economic order<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Organizational Structure of SCO<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <u>Heads of State Council (HSC)<\/u> is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO, it meets once a year.<\/li>\n<li>The <u>Council of Heads of Government<\/u> is the second-highest council in the organisation.<\/li>\n<li>The <u>Council of Foreign Ministers<\/u> hold regular meetings, where they discuss the current international situation.<\/li>\n<li><u>Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS)<\/u>, based in Tashkent, is established to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Official working languages:<\/strong> Chinese, Russian<\/li>\n<li><strong>SCO Secretariat<\/strong>: Beijing, China<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Member Countries of SCO<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/05\/10\/image-20230510093757-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Members of SCO<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>8 member states<\/strong> <strong>\u2013 <\/strong>China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan.\n<ul>\n<li>India and Pakistan became full members at the Heads of State Council meet in Astana in 2017.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Iran will be the newest member (9<sup>th<\/sup>) of the SCO, when it joins the forum in 2023<\/strong> under the chairmanship of India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>4 Observer members \u2013 <\/strong>Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Mongolia\n<ul>\n<li>In 2021, the procedure of granting Iran the status of Member State was started at the SCO Summit in Dushanbe.<\/li>\n<li>In 2022, a similar procedure was launched for Belarus at the SCO Summit in Samarkand<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>9 Dialogue Partners \u2013 <\/strong>Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n<li>In 2022, the procedure for granting the status of Dialogue Partners to Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates was initiated at the SCO Summit in Samarkand<strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Significance\u00a0 of SCO<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/05\/10\/image-20230510093757-2.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Significance of SCO<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Significance of SCO For India<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s security, geopolitical, strategic and economic interests are closely intertwined with developments in the region<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS)<\/strong> of SCO specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.<\/li>\n<li>The Central Asian region is <strong>richly endowed with natural resources<\/strong> and vital minerals<\/li>\n<li>SCO provides a platform for <strong>India\u2019s efforts to connect with Central Asia<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stable Afghanistan<\/strong> is in India\u2019s interest. SCO is a platform which can play an important role in Afghanistan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) How many countries border the Caspian Sea?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Caspian Sea is bordered by five countries: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Which is the joint military exercise between India and Uzbekistan?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>INDO-UZBEKISTAN joint military exercise is called &#8216;DUSTLIK&#8217;. It was held recently in February, 2023 in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/sco-meet-bilawal-bhutto-jaishnakar-india-pak-terrorism-8593875\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>SCO Foreign Ministers\u2019 Meet<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/called-out-pakistans-bilawal-in-sco-meet-for-acting-as-terror-mouthpiece-jaishankar\/articleshow\/100022325.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>ToI<\/u><\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organization, established in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}