Delhi prepares for Shanghai Cooperation Summit

As India prepares to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in virtual format, it is, perhaps, in order to hark back to how New Delhi's relationship with the group began.
As an observer country, India joined the SCO in 2005 and became a full member of the group at the Astana Summit in 2017, marking a watershed point in its relationship with the Organisation. In the last six years, India has taken an active and positive role in all SCO operations.
At the SCO Summit in Samarkand in September 2022, India took over the chairmanship of the SCO for the first time from Uzbekistan.
During India's presidency, the SCO has reached new milestones in the depth and intensity of its engagements and interactions across wide-ranging sectors.
The theme of India's chairship of SCO- SECURE is derived from the acronym coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2018 SCO Qingadao Summit.
It stands for:
S : Security,
E: Economic development,
C: Connectivity,
U: Unity,
R: Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity
E: Environmental protection
India created five new pillars and focus areas of cooperation in SCO -- Startups and Innovation, Traditional Medicine, Digital Inclusion, Youth Empowerment and Shared Buddhist Heritage.
"On February this year, a virtual conference of experts and practitioners of traditional medicine was organised where experts from 25 countries of SCO participated. As per the vision of Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi ji, the draft terms of reference of Expert Working Group on Traditional Medicine was approved during a meeting of experts held at New Delhi last month," the official release of Ministry of Ayush stated.

(ANI)