SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION

• Ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)Summit to be held in September 2022, Varanasi has been selected as the SCO region’s first “Tourism and Cultural Capital for 2022-23.
• The SCO summit will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan where Iran and Belarus are likely to be the two newest additions to the SCO. Earlier, the Cabinet was apprised of the Agreement signed among the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, SCO, member states on cooperation in the field of youth work among the authorized bodies of the member states of SCO.
• India will host the SCO summit next year 2023.
• Varanasi’ “Cultural and Tourism Capital” has been decided under a new rotating initiative to promote people-to-people contacts and tourism among the member states.
• Each year a city of the cultural heritage of a member country that will take over the rotating Presidency of the organisation will get the title to highlight its prominence.
• The new initiative will come into force after the Samarkand summit following which India will take over the Presidency and host the next Heads of the State summit. 

Expansion SCO

• It is seen that the SCO’s international influence is rising and the principles of the SCO charter are being widely accepted.
• With expansion, China and Russia are looking to frame the grouping as a counter to the West, especially the expansion of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation).
• However, it is believed that SCO and NATO have stark contrasts between them.
• The expansion of NATO is totally different as the SCO is a cooperative organisation based on non-alignment and not targeting a third party.
• NATO is based on Cold War thinking. The logic of NATO is creating new enemies to sustain its own existence.

Relevance of the Grouping for India

• Through the years, the SCO hosts have encouraged members to use the platform to discuss differences with other members on the sidelines.
• It was on such an occasion that current Indian Prime Minister held a bilateral meeting with former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2015 and Foreign Minister negotiated a five-point agreement with his Chinese counterparton the side-lines of the Moscow conference in 2020.
• India is also a part of the ‘Quadrilateral’ grouping with the U.S., Japan and Australia.
• Its association with the grouping of a rather different nature is part of its foreign policy that emphasises on principles of “strategic autonomy and multi-alignment”.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT