India to host SCO Summit 2023, Pak says no decision on participation yet
Pakistan has still not decided if it will attend the next SCO summit to be conducted in India under its chairmanship
Even as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit for this year is still undergoing in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the popular buzz is around the dynamics of Pakistan attending the next year's summit as it is scheduled to take place in India under its chairmanship. Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto said on Friday that no decision is taken on the issue and the government is still considering it.
"There is no decision yet on Pakistan's participation in the next SCO summit," Bhutto, who is in Samarkand to attend the SCO summit chaired by Uzbekistan this year, said while speaking to ANI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently at Samarkand attending the SCO summit with other world leaders amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chinese disengagement on LAC, and nuclear inspections in Iran, etc.
Next year, India will take over as the next Chair of SCO from Uzbekistan and will also host the summit. While Pakistan is still considering the development, the Chinese have already congratulated India for holding the next year's summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated India during the meeting of the expanded circle of the Heads of SCO.
"I congratulate India for hosting the SCO next year," Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a statement during the summit.
During his address at the summit, Prime Minister Modi also informed about India's upcoming initiative for a new SCO working group on traditional medicines.
The summit usually has two kinds of sessions, one is a restricted session, in which only full member states attend while another one is expanded session that includes the SCO Member States, Observers, Special Guests of the Chair and representatives from regional organizations, etc.
This was also the first in-person SCO summit after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. The last such in-person summit was conducted in June 2019 in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
The current form of SCO includes eight Member States (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), four Observer States interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia) and six "Dialogue Partners" (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey).
In 2021, the organization also decided to admit Iran as a full member. The organization is now one of the largest multilateral organizations accounting for 30% of the world GDP and 40% of its population.
Hosting the SCO summit next year will be one of India's activities in a diplomatic action-packed year. India will also assume the one-year Presidency of the G20 and one-month Presidency of the UNSC from this December.
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First Published:16 Sep 2022, 08:06 PM IST
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