At key SCO meeting, Home Minister Shah takes a leaf out of PM Modi’s Qingdao address

Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday that India’s priority as the Chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State is to take forward the SECURE theme articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Qingdao Summit of the SCO in 2018.

The SECURE stands for Security, Economic cooperation, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for sovereignty and integrity and Environment protection.

Shah made the comments as he chaired the meeting of Heads of Departments of SCO Member States responsible for Prevention and Elimination of Emergency Situations, in New Delhi today.

India assumed the rotating presidency of the SCO at the 2022 SCO Summit held in Uzbekistan capital Samarkand. As the current Chair, India will host the next Summit of the Council of Heads of State, later this year.

In his address, the Home Minister stated that, under PM Modi’s leadership, India attaches special importance to the SCO in promoting dialogue on the subject relating to multi-dimensional political, security and economic subjects. He said that India has been associated with the SCO since 2005 and playing an important role as an observer country since then. India became a full member of the organisation at the 17th summit in 2017.

Shah said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will probably be the largest regional organisation in the world at this time, representing 40% of the global population, 25% of the global GDP and 22% of the world’s total land area.

He also mentioned that India attaches special importance to Disaster Risk Reduction and is ready to share its expertise and experience in this field for greater cooperation and mutual trust among SCO Member States. India, he said, has now more accurate and timely early warning system in place and the country has seen a sea change in the way its early warning systems (EWS) of drought, flood, lightning, heat wave, cold wave, cyclone, have improved.

At the same time, India has also taken several important initiatives of international cooperation in the field of disaster risk reduction. India-led Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) has 39 members from across the world. CDRI is working with member countries to ensure that all investments in infrastructure is made in a manner that it makes our infrastructure resilient to disasters.

Also, on India’s initiative, a Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction has been constituted at the G20, and the first meeting of this group was held recently in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

Shah spotlighted that the ‘Tsunami Early Warning System’ for the Indian Ocean Rim Countries established by the Indian National Centre for Oceanic Information Services (INCOIS) serves not just India but nearly two dozen other countries.

Along with this, India has not only hosted joint bilateral exercises with SAARC, BIMSTEC, and SCO countries but also deployed its National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in disaster affected countries – especially Nepal after the 2015 earthquake.

Emphasising on India’s culture which teaches ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family), he highlighted that the NDRF was also recently deployed for search and rescue operation within hours of earthquake in Turkey.

Shah listed five major areas to further strengthen the approach of SCO. It included confidence building efforts in Asia, collective responsibility approach, expanding cooperation in communication and information sharing, identification of priority areas, and, use of newly developed technology in disaster resilience capacity building.

He asserted that the New Delhi meeting will open up new avenues of cooperation among SCO Member Countries and that India, under the leadership of PM Modi, is committed to explore and avail the new opportunities and enhance the role of SCO in the world forum.