In News:

• Pakistan has been invited to the closing ceremony, on October 13, of the ongoing Joint Anti-Terror Exercise (JATE).
• Hosted by India, JATE is being conducted under the ambit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO - RATS).
  • India assumed its role as Chairperson of the SCO-RATS mechanism in October 2021.

What’s in today’s article:

• Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – About, observers, SCO – RATS
• News Summary

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

• SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, created in June 2001 in Shanghai (China).
• Founding members included Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
• This organization represents approximately 42% of the world’s population, 22% of its land area and 20% of its GDP.
• In 2021 summit held in Dushanbe, members decided to include Iran as a full member.

Observers

• Before 2021, SCO had four observer states. This included - Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia.
• In 2021, Iran became a full member and Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar were added as new observer states. Hence, currently, SCO has 6 observer states namely:
  • Afghanistan, Belarus, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.

SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO – RATS)

• RATS as a permanent body was instituted during the meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO member states in June 2002 in St. Petersburg.
• Since its establishment, RATS has become the pillar of coordination for combatting separatism, terrorism, and extremism regionally as well as globally.
• Under RATS’ working relationship, the member countries coordinate with each other and other global organisations to gather information to tackle terrorism.
• RATS also maintains a database of terrorists and terror organisations from across its member countries.
• Through joint counterterrorism exercises under RATS, member countries train armed personnel for strengthening their counterinsurgency grid and coordination amongst the group.
  • Joint Anti-Terror Exercise (JATE) is an annual counter-terrorist exercise held within the framework of the SCO RATS.
  • The exercise is aimed at exchanging expertise and best practices, and build synergy between the Counter Terrorism Forces of the SCO RATS member countries.

News Summary

• The National Security Guard (NSG) is hosting the multinational JATE (Joint Anti-Terror Exercise) “Manesar Anti-Terror 2022” under the framework of the SCO-RATS.
• Pakistan team is participating in the event as a member of the SCO.
• India had also participated in RATS meet that Pakistan had organised last year
  • In September 2021, India had participated in the closing ceremony of the two-week-long JATE-2021.
  • It was hosted by Pakistan at the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Pabbi, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.