India has formally sent invites to all the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for a foreign ministers’ meeting that will take place in Goa from 4-5 May. This includes invites to the new foreign minister of China Qin Gang and Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto. India took over the chairmanship of the 9-member mega grouping in September of last year and will be holding key ministerial meetings and the summit this year. So far there is no confirmation from the Pakistani side on whether foreign minister Bilawal will be attending the meeting. Ties between the 2 countries remain frozen over the issue of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan even as Islamabad has been calling for the reinstatement of Article 370 for the erstwhile Indian state of J&K as a prerequisite for any talks. Add to this, FM Bilawal’s remarks of last month at the UN on PM Modi seem to have cast a shadow on any recovery in ties. Pakistan has not participated in the SCO film festival that will take place in Mumbai later this month. While all countries have sent entries, Pakistan is the only country not to send any films for screening at the 3rd such film festival of the grouping. Neerja Shekar, additional secretary, I&B on Monday in a presser said, “there is only one SCO member country, from which entries have not been received. there has been no response”.
India will be holding meetings of SCO defence, NSA, interior, and environment ministers in the run-up to the summit. Ministerial meetings will begin in March, the first week onwards. The over-20-year-old organization has Russia, India, China, Pakistan and 4 central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as its members. Iran is the latest country to become a member and under Indian Presidency will for the first time attend the grouping’s meeting as a full-fledged member.
The grouping covers more than 60% of the area of the Eurasian landmass, 40% of the world population and 30 % of the global GDP. More and more countries have shown interest in becoming part of the grouping, especially from the Arab world, many of whom have got the status of the dialogue partner.
