Russian Presidency in SCO.

Byline: Muhammad Asif Noor

Last year in June when Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit held in Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, founder member Russian Federation assumed the next SCO presidency. A decision was reached to organize highest apex forum of Heads of States Council meeting of SCO Member states in the beautiful Russian Ural city of Chelyabinsk on July 22-23, 2020. During this period of presidency, Russian Federation chalked out important initiatives meant to contribute towards regional and multilateral strength within the framework of the organization.

After assumption of the SCO presidency, Advisor to the Russian President met with the Secretary General of SCO to finalize a yearlong action plan for Russia's presidency inorder meritoriously implement the planned goals. Through the strength and enacted compact framework with strong system of consolidated mechanism put forward for the inclusive development and cooperation amongst state, SCO has outshined many other regional groupings. Established as SCO in 2001, as a successor to Shanghai Five, will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. The forum has eight permanent member states including China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan while Belarus, Iran, Magnolia, Afghanistan are observer states.

There are six countries which are dialogue partner countries including Armenia, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey. Russia will be in the limelight throughout this year as the country will host major international events including the SCO Summit, BRICS Summit, Cancer Control Summit 2020 and SCO Business Council meeting. During this period of presidency, Russia will also invite all SCO member states to be part of the grand celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War. The ongoing challenging times as the COVID-19 pandemic is slashing the world's social, economic and political fabrics, SCO forum under the ongoing presidency of Russian Federation is offering a favorable time to build a collective and effective humanitarian response mechanism to meet this challenge together.

A comprehensive a yearlong action plan has been devised by the Russian Federation to effectively implement the aims and objectives outlined in the entire framework of work during the presidency. There are more than 90 different items that are blended together for the collaboration in the sectors of security, trade, economic, cultural and...