SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION (SCO)

About:

• Expanding the group is among the issues that leaders of the grouping are likely to discuss at the SCO summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September.
• China, Russia and four Central Asian states — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — were the founding members of the SCO, while India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017 in its first round of expansion.
• Last year’s summit in Dushanbe agreed for Iran to join, while Belarus has also begun the membership process. China and Russia are looking to frame the grouping as a counter to the West — particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• India will host the SCO summit next year, and Varanasi has been selected as the SCO region’s first “Tourism and Cultural Capital”, a title it will hold next year coinciding with India chairing the grouping.