India to chair SCO environment, emergencies ministers meet this week

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) environment and emergency ministers (Emergency Prevention) are meeting this week, with India holding the chairmanship of the grouping this year. The meetings are part of a series of ministerial meetings being held in the run-up to the summit in July. India is hosting the environmental ministers meeting today virtually and will be chaired by Indian environment minister Bhupender Yadav.

The emergency ministers' meeting will be held on April 20, with Pakistan participating virtually and China in person at the deputy minister level. India got the chairmanship of the grouping at the Samarkand SCO summit in September last year, and this is the first time it is holding the summit since becoming a member of the grouping in 2017. 

India will be hosting the SCO Defence Ministers meeting from April 27 to April 29 in Delhi, followed by the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting from May 4 to May 5 in Goa. Invitations have been sent to all the member countries of the grouping, including China and Pakistan. 

Any in-person representation from Pakistan in both meetings will be significant, as this will be the first such ministerial visit from Pakistan to India since New Delhi removed the special status for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. 

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a major global grouping that was established over two decades ago with the aim of promoting economic, political, and military cooperation among its member nations. The organisation comprises eight member countries, namely Russia, India, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and covers over 60 per cent of the Eurasian landmass, with a population of more than 40 per cent of the world's inhabitants and an economy that accounts for 30 per cent of global GDP. 

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