About

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established in 2001.
• It was built on the Shanghai Five grouping of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which had come together in the post Soviet era in 1996, in order to work

on regional security, reduction of border troops, and terrorism. In 2001, the Shanghai Five inducted Uzbekistan into the group and named it the SCO.

• • The Organization has 2 standing bodies — the Secretariat in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent.
  • The official languages of the SCO are Russian and Chinese.
  • The supreme decision-making body of the SCO is the Council of Heads of States (CHS). It meets once a year and decides upon all the important issues of the Organization. 
  • The Charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization which entered into force in 2003 is a statute that stipulates the goals, principles, structure and major areas of activities of the organisation.

• Member States: 10

• • • India (Member since 2017), Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

• Observer Status: Afghanistan and Mongolia 

Major Goals of the SCO 

• to strengthen mutual trust, friendship and good-neighbourliness between the Member States
• to encourage the effective cooperation between the Member States in such spheres as politics, trade, economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, etc
• to jointly ensure and maintain peace, security and stability in the region
• to promote a new democratic, fair and rational international political and economic international order.

What relevance does the SCO hold for India?

• The SCO membership allows India to participate in a forum which enhances its scope of cooperation with Central Asian countries, which have not had particularly close relations with India since their formation in 1991. 
• It also matters for maintaining communication with major actors in the region on common security issues.
  • For example, an important permanent structure within the SCO is the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). It assists members in 
    • the preparation and staging of counter-terrorism exercises, 
    • analyses key intelligence information coming in from the member states, 
    • shares information on terrorist movements and drug trafficking.

Why in news?

• Belarus has joined SCO as its tenth member in the July summit in Astana, becoming the first European country to join the organisation.