NEW DELHI: Pakistan has sent a two-member team for a meeting of national coordinators of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that began in New Delhi on Monday to discuss the agenda for next year’s summit of the grouping to be hosted by India.
India took over the presidency of the SCO following the nine-member bloc’s summit at Samarkand in Uzbekistan last month. India is expected to host the SCO Summit before the G20 Summit, which will be held in New Delhi in September 2023.
The national coordinators of the SCO are meeting during October 17-18 at a time when India’s relations with both Pakistan and China are strained. Ties between New Delhi and Beijing have not recovered from the fallout of the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh sector, while relations between India and Pakistan are at a fresh low.
Despite these problems in bilateral relations, Pakistan has sent two mid-level officials from its foreign ministry to participate in the SCO national coordinators’ meeting, people familiar with the matter said. The level of China’s participation could not immediately be ascertained.
Pakistan and China also sent officials to participate in the closing ceremony of a counter-terrorism exercise hosted by India under the framework of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). India was the chair of RATS till recently.
{{/usCountry}}Pakistan and China also sent officials to participate in the closing ceremony of a counter-terrorism exercise hosted by India under the framework of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). India was the chair of RATS till recently.
{{/usCountry}}A meeting of officials decided to organise the next RATS exercise in China in 2023, and also agreed on joint measures by SCO member states to counter challenges and threats posed by terrorist organisations operating from the territory of Afghanistan.
The meeting also approved the work plans of the RATS executive committee and the activities of a technical experts group of the SCO member states and expert groups on border cooperation and countering the use of the internet for terrorist, separatist and extremist purposes.