Afghan situation to dominate Jaishankar’s central Asian visit

Afghan situation to dominate Jaishankar’s central Asian visit

Subject : International Relations

Context : Mr. Jaishankar will first attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) ministerial in Dushanbe on July 13-14 after which he will travel to Tashkent for a regional connectivity conference on July 15-16.

Concept :

About Shanghai CooperationOrganisation

• The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation. It is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance and has been the primary security pillar of the region.
• It was established in 2001. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
• The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation.
• The organisation has two permanent bodies:

the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing.

the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.

• Eight member states: India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
• Four observer states: Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia.