India to host SCO summit on July 4, to be chaired by Modi
Darpan News Desk IANS, 30 May, 2023 10:05 AM
New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) Under India's first-ever chairmanship of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the 22nd summit of the SCO Council of heads of state will be held in the virtual format on July 4, and will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India has assumed the rotating chairmanship of SCO at the Samarkand Summit on September 16, 2022.
According to a statement issued by the ministry of external affairs, all the SCO member states namely China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, have been invited to attend the summit.
In addition, Iran, Belarus, and Mongolia have been invited as Observer States.
As per SCO tradition, Turkmenistan has also been invited as the guest of the Chair.
Heads of the two SCO bodies - the Secretariat and the SCO RATS - will also be present.
Further, heads of six international and regional organisations have also been invited, namely the UN, the ASEAN, the CIS, the CSTO, the EAEU, and the CICA.
The theme of the summit is 'Towards a SECURE SCO'.
The SECURE acronym was coined by Modi at the 2018 SCO summit and it stands for Security, Economy and Trade, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity, and Environment.
These themes have been highlighted during India's chairmanship of SCO, official sources said.
India has set up new pillars of cooperation under its chairmanship - startups and innovation, traditional medicine, digital inclusion, youth empowerment and shared Buddhist heritage.
In addition to this, India has worked towards fostering greater people to people ties that celebrate the historical and civilisational bonds between the nations, the statement said.
These include the various socio-cultural events hosted by Varanasi under the framework of the first-ever SCO Cultural and Tourist Capital for 2022-23.
India's Chairmanship of SCO has been a period of intense activity and mutually beneficial cooperation between member states.
India has hosted a total of 134 meetings and events, including 14 ministerial-level meetings and remains committed to play a positive and constructive role in the organisation and looks forward to a successful SCO summit as the culmination of its chairmanship, it said further.
On April 13, the victim had come from Palwal to a farmhouse in Lakhuwas village in Sohna with his friends, where around a dozen people surrounded him and beat him with hammers and iron rods.
Coming out in support of protesting wrestlers and saying the fight is for honour and dignity of every women, senior Congress leader Navjot Sidhu on Monday questioned that why accused Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Sharan Singh wasn't arrested despite a case was registered against him under the "non-bailable POCSO Act".
The police recovered the half-burnt torso of the victim from a room built in the fields of Kukdola village in Manesar area on April 21. Later, the police also found her hands and head.
The incident has raised serious questions on the safety of women and children traveling on the Delhi Metro. Taking cognizance of the video, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Friday issued a notice to the Delhi Police and Delhi Metro to take strict action.
The arrested have been identified as Onkar Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, and Prabhjot Singh of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. The police have seized at least nine passports, besides recovering several photocopies of passports of absconding gangsters prepared using fake particulars.
The judge also said that the purported medical condition of Sisodia's wife was not a reason to grant him bail in this case. Additionally, he stated that it was impossible to rule out the potential of Sisodia influencing key witnesses in the case.
