Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

#GS-02 International Relations

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a permanent intergovernmental international organization for regional security.
SCO was created in 2001 after Uzbekistan joined the Shanghai Five which was constituted by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017, Iran joined the grouping in 2022 at the Samarkand summit while Belarus has applied for membership.
Headquarters of SCO is located at Beijing, China.
The 9 Member States are China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan

India will be hosting the SCO summit in June 2023 which has gained significance as they will bring the Pakistani leadership to India after a decade.
This along with the G-20 summit will bring the Chinese and Russian leadership to India as well.
It become more significant since India and China have had very few bilateral meetings post the 2020 stand-off at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin at either the SCO summit or the G-20 summit becomes highly crucial amidst the war in Ukraine.
It is also the first SCO summit that Iran will attend as a full member of the grouping.

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