On Friday, the defense ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met in Delhi, but Pakistan was only there virtually.
The SCO Defense Ministers’ Meeting will be held on April 28. India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will be in charge, and Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif will be there virtually.
Thursday morning, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Tajikistan’s Colonel General Sherali Mirzo, Iran’s Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Gharaei Ashtiyani, and Kazakhstan’s Colonel General Ruslan Zhaksylykov were already in the national capital.
Delhi | SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting hosted by India to begin shortly
Pakistan to attend the meeting via video conferencing pic.twitter.com/bffWsh3Rqb
— ANI (@ANI) April 28, 2023
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Minister of Defense, and his peers from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan will also be there.
Officials who helped plan the meeting said that the major topic of discussion will be regional security, including what is happening in Afghanistan. They said that another focus will be making it easier for SCO member countries to work together to fight terrorism and extremism.
India, which will be Chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2023, will host the SCO Defense Ministers’ Meeting on April 28, 2023, in New Delhi.
SCO is a group of governments that came together in 2001. The SCO membership includes Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan besides India.
In addition to the member states, Belarus and Iran will also be at the SCO Defense Ministers Meeting as observers.
