After hosting a series of top-level meetings with its partner nations recently, India is prepared to receive its partners from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) alliance for the next foreign ministers conference, which will be held in Goa, after recently hosting several high-level visits from its member countries. Goa has decked up on Goan style to welcome the partners of SCO.India, which will host the SCO, has formally sent the invitations to all the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), with China, Pakistan, and Russia confirming their presence. The meeting will take place in Goa from May 4-5. Notably, at the SCO Summit in Samarkand in 2022, India took the rotating SCO presidency. All SCO members had received formal invitations from India, and participation in the summit has been confirmed by the foreign ministries of China, Pakistan, and Russia.According to the sources, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar arrived in Goa on Wednesday to take stock of the preparations. Reportedly, EAM will have a bilateral meeting during the day with many of his SCO counterparts.On May 4, the early arrival of Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, is anticipated at Goa Airport.The conference takes on significance since it comes with escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, particularly in the wake of what Russia has said was an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin.Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy also informed, “On May 4–5, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states in India.”According to a Russian press release, Foreign Minister Lavrov will also discuss “topical issues of the international and regional agenda”.Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the foreign minister of Pakistan, will also arrive in Goa on May 4 in the afternoon for an SCO summit. A potential bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan hasnt been announced yet, though.The spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday that Qin Gang, who is the countrys foreign minister, will meet with foreign ministers from other SCO member nations to discuss the global and regional situation.To fully prepare for this years SCO summit, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang will discuss the international and regional situation, as well as SCO cooperation in various fields with foreign ministers from other SCO members, and states at the meeting, the spokesperson said.Relevantly, the two-day gathering of foreign ministers will concentrate mostly on the substantive issues to be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State, which is slated to take place in New Delhi on July 3–4.About Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an international group established in 2001, places a strong emphasis on issues related to regional security, including the struggle against terrorism, ethnic separatism, and religious extremism. Regional development is another priority for the SCO at the moment.The members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation include India, Russia, China, Pakistan and four Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
