SHANGHAI CO-OPERATION ORGANISATION (SCO)

About: 

• What is it? The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation. It is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance and has been the primary security pillar of the region.
  
  
• History: It was established in 2001. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
  
  
• The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation.
  
  
• The organisation has two permanent bodies:
  • the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing.
    
    
  • the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.
    
    
  
  
  
• Membership:
  • Eight member states: India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
    
    
  • Four observer states: Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia.