Deputy NSA to attend SCO's security meet next week

Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) Rajinder Khanna will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) Rajinder Khanna in Beijing next week.

The 13th meeting of the SCO Security Council Secretaries will be held in Beijing on May 21-22, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang announced on Wednesday.

"The meeting will focus on issues including the regional security situation and priority of security cooperation among the SCO members. It is the first SCO security council secretaries meeting since the organization's enlargement. The primary task is to make political and security preparations for the Qingdao summit. During the meeting, Chinese leaders will meet with the heads of the delegations from participating countries," Lu was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

The SCO, which is headquartered in Beijing, was founded in 2001. It comprises of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan, and aims at military cooperation between the member states.

Last year, India and Pakistan were admitted to the China-led bloc.

Last month, External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended the SCO defence ministers' meeting and SCO foreign ministers' meeting respectively.

This year's annual summit of the SCO is scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June.