India as the host of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) council of foreign ministers (CFM) meeting in Goa is expected to focus on countering terrorism, the situation of women and girls under Taliban in Afghanistan, regional security, and radicalization. Also the key focus at the meeting on Friday will include state of multilateral cooperation, and the progress of admitting Iran & Belarus as full members of the grouping.
The CFM meeting will set the stage for the July Summit scheduled to take place in New Delhi where the top leaders of the member states are expected to participate.
India has been pushing to use English as an official language as the bloc uses Russian and Mandarin as working languages. Russia and China along with four Central Asian countries had formed the bloc and most of the members speak Russian language. The first time India proposed this was in 2020.
Since it became a full member of the bloc in 2017, it has been pushing for strengthening and deepening cooperation on issues related to defence, fight against terrorism regional security among others.
Tentative Programme
The foreign ministers of all the member states accompanied by their delegations are reaching Goa, India and they are staying at Taj Exotica in Benaulim. This is the venue of meetings (bilateral as well as ministerial) which will take place today and tomorrow.
Today (May 4, 2023) Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will be hosting a Gala Reception for the visiting dignitaries. However there is no clarity if the Pakistan FM Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will join the gathering.
On Friday (May 5, 2023) the official engagements will begin at the Taj and at the end of the meeting there will be a group photo. The CFM meet will start in the morning and by noon it will end with the signing of Memorandum with New Dialogue Partners. This will then be followed by a working lunch.
After the meeting the Chinese Foreign Minister & State Councillor Qin Gang and his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto will leave for Islamabad.
The meeting of the council of foreign ministers (CFM) will begin in the morning and by noon the ‘decision document’ will be signed, which will be followed by a working lunch.
The visiting ministers will later hold bilateral meetings with their respective counterparts from other member states.
For India – Day one is very busy
Earlier in the day Jaishankar had a bilateral meeting with SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming. And soon he will have bilateral talks with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and this will be followed by a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
The meetings with other ministers are scheduled to take place tomorrow (May 5, 2023).
Theme of SCO
This year the theme of the SCO under India is ‘SECURE-SCO’. According to an official statement India attaches importance to SCO in promoting security, economic, multilateralism as well as people to people connect in the region.