Rajnath Singh to chair SCO Defence ministers' meeting on April 28

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers Meeting on April 28 in New Delhi.

Defence Ministers of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will participate in the meeting. India has invited Belarus and Iran, currently observers in SCO, to participate in the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting.

The Defence Minister of Pakistan would be participating virtually.

The ministers will discuss matters related to regional peace and security, counter-terrorism efforts within SCO and effective multilateralism.

Raksha Mantri will be holding bilateral meetings with the participating Defence ministers on April 27 and 28 where bilateral defence-related issues and other matters of mutual interest will be discussed.

India has ancient civilisational, cultural and spiritual ties with the SCO member countries. India's membership of SCO in 2017, was, therefore, a reaffirmation of New Delhi's keenness to deepen these historic ties.

India considers SCO as an important regional group to promote multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interactions in the region.

India continues to bring more ideas and initiatives to strengthen cooperation amongst SCO countries. Under its chairmanship, this year, India organised two defence-related activities to enhance interoperability amongst SCO member-states.

The first was a workshop on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and the second was a seminar on SCO countries' defence think-tanks on the issue of Armed Forces contributing to Military Medicine, Healthcare and Pandemics.

India stands committed to taking forward the Agenda of SCO under its chairmanship.