“India is glad to be a member of the SCO & looks forward to fruitful outcomes particularly in the field of economic cooperation through SCO”, Modi said via his official Twitter account.
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At the meeting, Pakistan is expected to sign the ‘Memorandum of Obligations, ‘ which will pave the way for the country to become a full member of SCO.
Next, India would have to sign some 35 documents through the course of the next few months that would complete the process of accession, she said.
The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given approval for a special package for employment generation and promotion of exports in Textile and Apparel sector.
Amid all this, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that NSG members had three rounds of unofficial discussions on the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping.
“With significantly extended opportunities for cooperation, the SCO’s role and influence are increasingly growing”, Xi was quoted as saying by the Uzbekistan National News Agency. After the moratorium on the admission of new members to the Organization was lifted, the process of admission of India and Pakistan to SCO full membership was launched at the SCO summit in Ufa, Russia, in 2015. We need to work out what we need to do … So, we are quite happy to engage in multiple processes. “A decision on actually expanding the SCO was taken by the SCO in 2014, and in the same year we applied to join it as a member”, Mehta added.
In the same vein, India too has connectivity ambitions in the region as exemplified by its development of the Chabahar port in Iran and linking this via rail and road networks to Afghanistan.
The importance of India’s SCO membership can hardly be overstated.
At the summit, for the first time, the SCO will be expanded to accommodate new countries and make them permanent members of the group.
The SCO is a political, economic and military alliance that includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The President will also hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
During his meeting with President Xi, Prime Minister Modi is expected to seek China’s support for India’s bid for the NSG membership.
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However, the Secretary told that it was a mere coincidence that the NSG meeting is coinciding with that of the SCO summit. Chabahar can also be linked to the North-South Transport Corridor joining up to the Central Asian Republics and Russian Federation, thereby giving India vital access to the region.
