In News:

• Recently, PM Modi visited Samarkand, Uzbekistan to attend the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

What’s in today’s article:

• Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
• News Summary

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

• SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, created in June 2001 in Shanghai (China).
• 6 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.

News Summary

• PM Modi participated in the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO.
• Samarkand Declaration of the Council of Heads of State of SCO was released after the summit.
• After the summit, Uzbekistan handed over the rotating presidency of the SCO to India. India will host the next SCO summit as a chairman of organisation in 2023.

List of Decisions adopted at the summit:

• Decision on the Comprehensive Action Plan for 2023-2027 for implementation of provisions of the Treaty on Long-Term Good Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation among the Member States.
  • This was the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on Long-term Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation of the SCO Member States.
• Decision to Develop Interconnectivity and Create Efficient Transport Corridors among members states.
• Decision on inclusion of new members
  • Iran to become a member State of the SCO
    • Iran was admitted in SCO in 2021 and will become full member in 2023.
  • Launched the procedure of admitting Belarus as a member of the SCO.
  • Granting Maldives, Bahrain, Myanmar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, the status of SCO dialogue partner.
• Tourist and Cultural Capital of the SCO in 2022-2023
  • The member countries decided to declare Varanasi, India, as the Tourist and Cultural Capital of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 2022-2023.
    • In 2021 summit, it was decided to nominate SCO Tourism and Cultural Capital with an objective of promoting cooperation in the field of culture and tourism.
    • Hence, Varanasi became the first Cultural capital of SCO.
• In Order to increase the cooperation with UNESCO, member countries of SCO decided to sign an MoU between the Secretariat of the SCO and the UNESCO (2023-2027).

Other areas of cooperation

• Member countries signed agreement on cooperation in various fields including:
  • Tourism, Museum affairs, Digital Literacy Development, Artificial Intelligence and Telemedicine.
• Programme of Cooperation in the Use of Renewable Energy Sources was signed the between Member States.
• Action Plan for Scientific and Technical Cooperation in Priority Areas (2022-2025) was also finalised.
• The leaders also finalised the concept of interaction between member states in the field of smart agriculture and agro- innovation.

Key Highlights of the speech made by PM Modi at the summit

• Stressed on the need to develop reliable, resilient and diversified supply chains in the region
  • The pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine caused many obstacles in global supply chains, due to which the whole world is facing an unprecedented energy and food crisis.
• Highlighted the strength of Indian economy
  • The government is making progress on making India a manufacturing hub.
  • India's economy is expected to grow by 7.5 percent this year, which will be the highest among the world's largest economies.
  • Today, there are more than 70,000 Start-ups in India, of which more than 100 are unicorns.
  • He emphasised that the experience of India can also be useful for many other SCO members.
  • In order to share this experience with SCO member countries, he proposed establishing a new Special Working Group on Start-ups and Innovation.
• Highlighted the importance of cultivation and consumption of millets
  • The world faces another major challenge today –i.e. ensuring the food security of our citizens.
  • One possible solution to this problem is to promote the cultivation and consumption of millets.
    • Millets are a superfood and is a traditional, nutritious, and low-cost alternative to dealing with the food crisis.
  • The year 2023 will be celebrated as the UN International Year of Millets.
  • PM Modi proposed organizing a 'Millet Food Festival' under the SCO.
• Highlighted the strength of India in medical and wellness tourism
  • India is today one of the most affordable destinations for medical and wellness tourism in the world.
  • WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine was inaugurated in Gujarat in April 2022. This will be WHO's first and only global centre for traditional medicine.
  • He proposed to increase cooperation on traditional medicine among SCO countries.
    • For this, India will take the initiative for a new SCO Working Group on Traditional Medicine.
• Emphasised on the need for better regional connectivity
  • In a remark aimed at Pakistan, he called upon all SCO countries to give each other `full right to transit’.
    • Pakistan doesn’t allow India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia.