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India China to conduct half a dozen bilateral meetings as Shanghai Cooperation Summit kickstarts

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Summit aims to recognize common threat posed by terrorism, strengthen security cooperation members

India and Pakistan’s first SCO summit after their membership appointment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched down on Saturday to engage in a series of two day bilateral talks as part of the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit held at Qingdao, China. The talks are aimed to establish regional, economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. This move arrives after an informal summit took place between the two leaders at Wuhan, China.

Nearly half a dozen bilateral meetings will take place with the aim to recognize the common threat posed by terrorism and strengthen security cooperation among all members.

This will be India and Pakistan’s first SCO summit after their membership appointment took place last year in Astana.

“The SCO has a rich agenda for cooperation, ranging from fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism to promoting cooperation in connectivity, commerce, customs, law, health and agriculture; protecting the environment and mitigating disaster risk, and fostering people-to-people relations,” Modi said.

Multiple meetings with the heads of SCO member states will also take place during these two days, in which the Prime Minister will focus on strengthening the groundwork for establishing India’s position in a multi-polar world.

Earlier a top Chinese official, ahead of the SCO summit has said that, “The entry of India and Pakistan into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation would strengthen security cooperation in the eight-member grouping.”

Liao Jinrong, head of the international cooperation department with the Ministry of Public Security, said at a media briefing ahead of the summit, “The summit will focus on enhancing cooperation to address the challenges of terrorism, drug trafficking, cross-border crimes, information security threats.”

The SCO is a geopolitical and geostrategic pan-Eurasian organization that came into inception in 2001, its predecessor being Shanghai Five, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan One of the main reasons of its inception was the aggressive American foreign policy behind Bill Clinton and George Bush.

What remains to be seen now, in the summit is the current power shift tag game that will be played between India and Pakistan, underlying tensions between the two neighbors.

 

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