Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established in 2001.
It’s a Eurasian political, economic and military organisation aiming to maintain peace, security and stability in the region.
Prior to the creation of SCO in 2001, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan were members of the Shanghai Five.
Following the accession of Uzbekistan to the organisation in 2001, the Shanghai Five was renamed the SCO.
There are eight member states in the SCO at present. India and Pakistan became members in 2017.
The SCO Secretariat, based in Beijing, is the main permanent executive body of the SCO.
The organisation has two permanent bodies —
- the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and
- the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent. RATS serves to promote cooperation of member states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

To strengthen mutual trust among the neighbouring member states.
To promote effective cooperation in various fields like economy, trade, politics, culture and research and technology.
To ensure peace, prosperity, security and stability in the region, and
To establish a democratic, fair and rational international eco-political order.

Counterterrorism teams from Russia, China, Pakistan and Central Asian countries will gather in Delhi on the weekend ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Regional Anti-Terror Structure (SCO-RATS) meeting hosted by India from May 16 to 19.
These are the first such official discussions to be held in India since the stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) where Chinese PLA troops transgressed in 2020, and since the Russian invasion in Ukraine this year.
While both India and Pakistan have no bilateral engagement at present and have not attended other regional meets such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meet, they both attended the Russia and China-led SCO meet.
India is expected to host the SCO summit in 2023, which would see leaders of the eight-member grouping (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) travelling to New Delhi.

Today Current Affairs Upsc Exam Syllabus & Previous Yearpaper.