Iran Press/Asia: Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an international intergovernmental organization established in June 2001 in Shanghai, China, by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and India and Pakistan joined this organization in June 2017.
Iran also officially joined the SCO at the 22nd SCO summit on Sep.16, 2022.
Iran officially became a member of this organization on July 4, 2023, in a virtual meeting chaired by India.
Islamabad currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Heads of Government, the organization's second most important decision-making body.
However, Modi is likely to skip the event and instead delegate a minister to represent India, as has been done in the past, according to a report from the Times of India. Notably, the Prime Minister missed the last SCO summit in Kazakhstan in July due to a scheduling conflict with a parliamentary session, as well as his upcoming visit to Moscow. Indian Foreign Minister
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar represented the country at that summit.
As mentioned earlier, Both India and Pakistan have been members of the Beijing-headquartered SCO since June 2017. However, India remains cautious about China's influence within the organization and has refrained from endorsing Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative in joint statements. New Delhi is also concerned about efforts to position the group as an anti-Western platform, the newspaper noted.
Historically, India-Pakistan relations have been tense and have deteriorated in recent years, primarily due to both countries' claims over Kashmir. The two nations have fought several wars over the region. Despite a ceasefire agreed upon in February 2021, sporadic clashes continue.
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Hossein Amiri
