New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Heads of States of all other Member States – Russia, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will hold their first meeting on virtual format post US elections which saw the defeat of Donald Trump.
The leaders will participate in the 20th Summit of SCO Council of Heads of State to be held tomorrow on Tuesday, November 10.
The annual meeting of SCO Heads of State will be held for the first time in virtual format due to Covid19. Russia is the current Chair of SCO and President Vladimir Putin will be chairing the meeting, sources said.
According to the format, each Member State will be speaking for 10 minutes. Apart from the 8 Member States, the Heads of State of 4 Observer States of SCO – Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia will also participate.
The Secretary General of SCO and the Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-terrorist Structure (SCO RATS) will also make their interventions. This will be the first meeting in the history of the organization that will be held in the virtual format.
The SCO Summit of Heads of State is the main body of the organisation that sets forth the Agenda and the main directions for the organization for the next year.
It deals with all the main areas of the activity of the organization including political, security, and trade, economic and cultural. Every annual meeting of SCO Heads of State ends with a Summit Declaration which contains the joint position of Member States on issues of global and regional significance.
This year, the November 10 Summit will end with the adoption of the Moscow Declaration under the Chairmanship of the Russian Federation.
Sources further said, apart from the Moscow Declaration, there will be SCO Statements on issues like the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of World War II, Digital Economy, COVID-19, Countering the Spread of Terrorism Including on the Internet and Countering the Drug Threat.
There will also be other decisions relating to major projects and initiatives in trade and economic sphere of activities. The report of the activities of the SCO Secretariat will also be adopted.
Sources also said Prime Minister Modi has led the Indian Delegation to this annual SCO Council of Heads of State since India became a full Member in the historic 2017 Astana Summit.
However, Indian association with the organization dates back to 2005 when it became an Observer State of SCO.
“Since then, India has played a positive and constructive role in all areas of SCO activity with a special emphasis on cooperation in trade and economy and in the cultural spheres,” sources said.
In the previous Summit held in Bishkek in 2019, PM Modi had given his vision for the SCO with the acronym HEALTH, H for health care cooperation, E for economic cooperation, A for alternative energy, L for literature and culture, T for terrorism free society and H for humanitarian cooperation.
“We have since pursued his vision within the various activities of SCO. During the course of Russia’s Chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State in 2020, India had actively participated in all physical and virtual meetings that were hosted by the Russian side.”
“We appreciate the efforts of the Russian side for holding extensive meetings in the virtual format and giving a new momentum to the on-going cooperation within SCO, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish a constructive and successful SCO Summit under the Chairmanship of Russia on 10 November 2020”, the source said.
