Rajnath Singh chairs SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting, stresses on cultural and civilisational ties | India News
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“We have cultural and civilisational links. For ages, we have had people-to-people connect and have exchanges in the field of commodities, and ideas–due to which we have grown in economic and cultural terms. With changing times, we will work to strengthen those linkages. SCO has evolved into a strong regional organisation,” he said.
After Rajnath’s opening address, Chinese Defence Minister General Li Shangfu and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who arrived in the capital on Thurday, addressed the meeting. Shoigu’s counterparts from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan also attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, India on Thursday made it categorically clear to China that there will simply be no improvement in the overall bilateral relationship till its troops disengage and de-escalate tensions in the three-year-old standoff in eastern Ladakh, while also summarily rejecting a new Chinese plan for resumption of military-to-military engagements in a sharp message to its larger neighbour.
While Pakistan had earlier decided to skip the conclave, it is now attending the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting in virtual mode.
Officials involved in preparations for the meeting said the deliberations’ main focus will be regional security situations, including the developments in Afghanistan. They said enhancing coordination among the SCO member countries to effectively combat terrorism and extremism will be another priority.
SCO is an intergovernmental organization established in 2001. The SCO membership includes Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan besides India. Apart from the member states, two observer countries Belarus and Iran are also be participating in the meeting.
India and Pakistan became permanent members in 2017.
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