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.
This is the first time that the ED has named Sisodia in its charge sheet in the matter. Earlier, the CBI, which is conducting a parallel probe into the excise policy case, had named Sisodia in its supplementary charge sheet.
A sea of humanity streamed into Badal village in Muktsar district in lakhs to pay their last respects to five times Chief Minister. Thousands walked several kilometers to pay homage to the son of the soil.
The former Chief Minister maintained that the country needed Modi as the Prime Minister for five more years at least to further strengthen and consolidate its position at global and domestic level.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has exposed a scam by arresting seven people, including a revenue official, on charges of receiving compensations during acquisition of land on forged documents in Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) from 2016 to 2020.
Sisodia has sought for interim bail on the ground of illness of his wife. Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, while listing the plea for consideration on Thursday with his regular bail plea, also asked the CBI to try make efforts to file the status report in the matter on the same day itself.
The arrested accused were identified as Nitin Narulla, Nikhil, Rajpal alias Raju Gahlot, Deepak - all residents of Delhi - Mohit and Jitender Dahiya, both residents of Haryana. Deepak, Nikhil and Nitin were found involved in other criminal cases as well.
