Foreign minister of 8 member countries including Russia, China, Pakistan, guest, Jaishankar host, what will be the agenda of SCO meeting?

Foreign ministers of eight member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will meet in Goa on May 4 and 5. This important meeting will set the stage for the SCO Leaders’ Summit to be held in New Delhi in July. As host, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived a day earlier to oversee the preparations. After the Samarkand conference 2022, India took the chairmanship of SCO. It has been hosting several meetings and conferences of the SCO including foreign ministers.

add english as official language

Since becoming a full member of the SCO in 2017, India has been pushing for the addition of ‘English’ as ​​an official language of communication. The first such proposal, put forward in 2020, was necessary to admit India and Pakistan as full members in a grouping that had only Russian and Mandarin as official and working languages ​​of the bloc, founded by Russia, China and four Central Asian countries. Modernization of the grouping with a focus on advanced technology and digital infrastructure will also be on the agenda of the SCO under India’s chairmanship. The agenda also included discussions with regional counterparts on various regional, security and political issues. Since becoming a member in 2017, India has consistently pushed to strengthen cooperation on regional security, defense and counter-terrorism, among other issues.

tentative schedule

The External Affairs Minister and his delegation will start arriving in Goa on 4th May. All delegations will be staying at the Taj Exotica in Benaulim, where the meetings are scheduled to take place. S Jaishankar will host a dinner for the visiting dignitaries. It is still not confirmed whether Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto will attend the meeting or not. The official program will begin on 5 May with the arrival of foreign ministers and heads of delegations at the meeting venue, followed by a group photo. The Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting will begin in the morning and the ‘Decision Document’ will be signed by afternoon, followed by a working lunch. The event will conclude with the signing of a memorandum with the new dialogue partners. The leaders would then hold various bilateral meetings with their respective counterparts from other countries. India is expected to have three bilateral meetings on 4 May. With SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming in the first half of the day, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov around 3 pm, followed by a bilateral meeting (time not confirmed) with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. S Jaishankar is expected to hold other bilateral meetings on May 5. Since its inception in 1996, the SCO has grown, expanded and emerged as one of the largest regional organizations. SCO member countries account for about 30 per cent of the global GDP and 40 per cent of the world’s population.

SCO Council of National Coordinators meeting

The meeting of the SCO Council of National Coordinators was held in Panaji, Republic of India from 29 April to 3 May, which was chaired by India. They also exchanged views on preparations for the meetings of the SCO Heads of State Council and the SCO Heads of Government Council, as well as on other aspects of the organization’s activities. The agenda of the meeting focused on preparations for the meeting of the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on May 4-5 in Panaji. The parties reviewed and agreed on the main draft documents to be presented for signature at the Ministerial Council meeting.