Pakistan And China Unlikely To Attend SCO NSA Meet Physically, Expected Virtually

Pakistan and China are not likely to show up in person at the March 29 meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) National Security Advisers that will be held here and hosted by NSA Ajit Doval.

Both are likely to be virtually present at the meeting, which will be attended by NSAs from Russia and Central Asia, like Nikolay Patrushev from Russia, in preparation for the July summit. The SCO NSA meeting will be held here at the end of March.

People who know about the matter say that the NSAs of the Eurasian grouping would focus on regional connections, counter-terror measures, cross-border terror and extremism, as well as the drug threat and the situation in Afghanistan. India will focus on getting the most out of Iran’s Chabahar Port and the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) as part of its plans to connect all of Eurasia. There are plans to link Chabahar Port and INSTC.

The SCO NSA mechanism is an important part of the group and will help get ready for the SCO summit in early July, which will be led by India. In May, the foreign ministers of the SCO will meet in Goa.

The NSA has been meeting regularly with his counterparts from Eurasia, including Russia and Central Asia, to talk about the future of Afghanistan. The stability of Afghanistan is important for both Eurasia and India. In February, Doval went to Moscow to meet his counterpart, with whom he gets along very well.

Continued threats from terror groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and others in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region could be on the agenda of the SCO NSA meeting, according to people who know about the topic.

Cyberspace is another important area that terrorists use. It can have serious effects, and the SCO NSAs put it high on their list of things to talk about. India has also asked for help to stop the illegal trade of weapons and ammunition in the area.

At the last SCO NSA meeting, which took place in Tashkent in August 2022, India brought up the fact that the presence of terror networks in Afghanistan was very worrying and that the increase in terror attacks by the ISIS-linked Islamic State-Khorasan Province in Afghanistan was a threat to everyone.

This was brought up by Vikram Misri, who is the deputy national security adviser and was in charge of the Indian delegation at the 17th meeting of NSAs from SCO member states in Tashkent.

Then, at the meeting, he said that technology has made terrorist threats many times worse. Terrorists were using new technologies like drones, AI, blockchain, digital money, and the dark web, so there was a need to fight back against these changes.

Misri also said that the land of Afghanistan shouldn’t be used to hide or train terrorists, or to plan or pay for terrorist acts. He is thought to have said that UNSC Resolution 2593 shows how the international community can work together to fight terrorism. He had said that not only the people who sell the drugs but also their sources and origins need to be stopped.

Misri said at the Tashkent meeting that the most important things to do right now in Afghanistan are to help the Afghan people with humanitarian aid, make sure an inclusive and representative government is formed, fight terrorism and drug trafficking, and protect the rights of women, children, and minorities.

India joined the SCO in June of 2017, and Iran is likely to do the same at the summit in July.