India to host SCO national coordinators’ meet next week

India is all set to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) national coordinators' meeting next week in Delhi. The meet will take place from October 17-18 and will be the first such national coordinator meet under the Indian presidency. New Delhi took over the presidency of the nine-member grouping earlier this year at the Samarkand SCO summit.

National coordinator, basically the role "Sherpas" play in G20 meetings decide on the issues that will be taken up in the grouping. India's national coordinator for SCO is Yojna Patel, an IFS of 2000 batch. The meet takes place in a hybrid mode, with the Pakistani delegation also attending it. During the course of the event, the focus will also be on agenda under the Indian presidency of the grouping.

India will be holding the SCO foreign, defence, national security advisers and summit-level meeting of the grouping next year. This month India also hosted anti-terror SCO drills in Haryana and the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) council meet.

The grouping, which came into being in 2001 has nine countries as its members viz. Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran and the four central Asian countries viz. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan. Iran became the latest member of the grouping this year and will attend the summit as a full-fledged member next year at the India SCO summit.

India, along with Pakistan became a member of the grouping in 2017. Geographically, economically and population wise, it is one of the largest groupings on the planet, extending from Vladivostok to Chabahar and from St Petersburg to Chennai.

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