External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met with SCO Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev in Beijing to discuss the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s role and how to modernize its workings. Jaishankar, in a post online, highlighted the importance of the SCO. This meeting is part of Jaishankar’s visit to China, his first in five years. He will attend the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Tianjin and engage in bilateral discussions. The SCO, which includes India, China, and other nations, will hold its 25th Heads of State Council meeting in Tianjin later this year. India held the SCO Presidency in 2023. The SCO membership consists of India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus. This visit comes after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s trip to China for SCO meetings in June. A point of contention at the Defence Ministers’ meeting was India’s refusal to sign a joint statement because it did not mention the terror attack in Pahalgam.
