Editor's note.

Amid rising global and regional challenges and tensions, 19 th Heads of State Summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan this June. The Summit has also marked the second consecutive year for both Pakistan and India participating in this one of the largest and influential regional grouping as permanent members. Apart from regular bilateral discussions on the forum, much emphasis and focus of the attention was on the bilateral meetings especially that of between Prime Minister of India and Pakistan. Along with Pakistan and India, the two South Asian nuclear rivals, this magnificent Summit was attended by all the heads of states of permanent members, dialogue partners and observers including Russia, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Belarus.

All credit goes to the government of Kyrgyzstan fo hosting and organizing such an important Summit in a remarkable manner. This year's summit assumed significance for SCO members due to ongoing developments in the international arena. Firstly, trade frictions of China and India with the US. China and the US have been engaged in conflict over trade from a year with both countries applying tariffs on each other's products. This trade war further escalated in recent months when Washington tightened trade restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Summit was expected to provide an opportunity to China and India to reach a consensus on trade protectionism and unilateralism during their meetings on sidelines of the Summit. As India is also facing trade frictions with the U.S. after the termination of India's status of Beneficiary Developing Country under Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

Secondly, Pulwama attack in February 2019 proved to be a major setback in historical Indo-Pakistan rivalry taking relations between both states at their lowest. This Summit was an opportunity to newly reaffirmed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan to interact for the first time and deescalate the tensions. Thirdly Iran an observer state of SCO, engaged in a serious confrontation with the US after the withdrawal of US from 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and crippling sanctions on Iranian oil and attack on two tankers on Gulf on Oman where the US accused Iran of the attack also attended the summit. Summit provided member states with an opportunity to reach a suitable consensus on ongoing...