India to hold SCO anti-terror body meet to counter extremism in region from May 16; Pakistan to participate

New Delhi: India will be hosting the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization or SCO's anti-terror body--Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) next week here from 16 to 19th of May. The summit will see the participation of all members of the grouping, including Pakistan. The SCO's RATS, based out of Uzbek capital Tashkent, is a permanent body of the grouping and aims to counter terrorism, extremism and separatism in the region.

A three-member Pakistani delegation will take part in the meeting. While SCO as a grouping came into existence in 2001, India and Pakistan became its members in 2017. Important to note that the Pakistani delegation, which will participate in a multilateral event, is among the first govt delegation visiting India since the new government took charge in Islamabad after the unceremonious departure of Imran Khan govt.

India had also participated, along with Pakistan in various SCO initiatives, including anti-terror drill in Russia's Chebarkul in 2018.

The meeting comes even as India is the current chairman of the executive council of SCO Rats. Earlier this year, Director of SCO RATS Mirzaev Ruslan Erkinovich visited India and held talks with Indian leadership including NSA Ajit Doval,  minister of state in the ministry of external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi, BSF Chief.

India will be holding the SCO RATS council meeting on October 14th this year in Delhi. New Delhi has also proposed to hold a joint SCO anti-terrorist exercise (JATE) in Manesar this year, something that has been supported by all member countries.

The last such anti-terror exercises took place in Pakistan's Pabbi. On March 25th this year, the 37th meeting of the council of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO RATS) took place in Tashkent under the chairmanship of India.

The SCO grouping is one of the largest groupings, covering around 40% of the global population and 30% of global GDP. The grouping is dominated by Russia and China and includes four central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. 

This year, Uzbekistan is the chair of the grouping and will hold the summit in September. It hands over the chairmanship to India, which will hold the summit next year. If an in-person summit happens next year, then the leaders of China and Pakistan could visit India.