India Renounces Trade Protectionism At The SCO

• 15 Jun 2019

Why is it in News?

The Prime Minister took part in the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit on 14th June, 2019, that was held at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Relevance of the News:

SCO is an important regional grouping for India’s interests and PM’s statement highlights India’s expectations from SCO members and the group’s functioning.

Minutes of the Meeting:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi undermined unilateralism and trade protectionism pursued by some countries and reflected by US-China trade rivalry and called for a rules-based, anti-discriminatory and all inclusive WTO-centred multilateral trading system.
• SCO members agreed that global politics and economy remains turbulent and tense, and the process of economic globalisation is being hindered by the growing unilateral protectionist policies.
• India expressed its commitment towards ensuring a favourable environment for the economic cooperation between the SCO member countries.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO):

• It is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, created in 2002 in Shanghai. SCO was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
• It has two permanent bodies:
• SCO Secretariat based in Beijing.
• Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.
• Membership: SCO comprises eight permanent member states, namely Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and two countries India and Pakistan joined as permanent members in 2017.

Objectives of SCO:

• Strengthen relations among member states.
• Promote cooperation in political affairs, trade, scientific, cultural, energy, transportation, tourism spheres, and environmental protection.
• Safeguard regional peace, security, and stability.
• Create a democratic, equitable international political and economic order.