NEW DELHI: New Delhi will host an in-person Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) National Security Advisors meet on Wednesday. Pakistan and China will be attending the meet virtually. India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will host the meet.
The post of NSA is vacant in Pakistan and therefore a senior defence personnel is likely to attend the meet online. Border tension between neighbours is cited as a reason for their attending the event virtually. The next key SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) meet will be from April 27 to 29, which will be the defence ministers' meet. This will also be hosted in Delhi.
There is no surety of whether Pakistan and China will attend this meet in person or virtually or even skip it. The most awaited SCO meet is the foreign ministers’ meet that would be held in Goa on May 4-5 and the SCO Summit will be held in July – which is likely to see participation of head of states of SCO members.
The SCO, founded over 20 years ago, comprises eight member countries-- Russia, India, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. This grouping covers over 60 per cent of the Eurasian landmass, 40 per cent of the world population and 30 per cent of the global GDP. There are SCO dialogue partners which include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt are also expected to become dialogue partners.