National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Wednesday attended a meeting of the top security officials from the member nations of the Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) in Tajikistan capital Dushanbe. Tajikistan, the current president of the SCO, is hosting the meeting of the top national security officials of the eight-nation grouping on June 23 and 24.
Pakistani National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf and Afghan NSA Hamdullah Mohib are among the participants at the in-person meeting that is discussing key regional security issues, including the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
“NSA Mr Ajit Doval participated in the 16th Meeting of Security Council Secretaries of SCO member states,” the Indian embassy in Tajikistan tweeted.
It is learnt that there is no possibility of any meeting between Doval and Yusuf. However, there could be an interaction between the Indian NSA and his Afghan counterpart. In September last year, Doval walked out of a virtual meeting of the SCO after the Pakistani representative projected a map that inaccurately depicted Kashmir. India had slammed Pakistan for the “blatant disregard” to the norms of the meeting. The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017. SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence. India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.
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