The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is an Eurasian political, economic, and security organisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
These countries, except for Uzbekistan, had been members of the Shanghai Five group, founded on 26 April 1996 in Shanghai.
India and Pakistan have joined SCO as full members on 9 June 2017 in 17th SCO summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.
India’s membership was strongly pushed by Russia while Pakistan’s entry into the grouping was backed by China.
The Tashkent SCO Summit in June 2010 had lifted the moratorium on new membership, paving the way for the expansion of the grouping.
India and Pakistan were admitted as observers in 2005 and began the administrative process of joining the organisation in 2015.
With the expansion of the grouping, the SCO will now represent over 40% of humanity and nearly 20% of the global GDP.
India, one of the largest energy consuming countries in the world, is also likely to get greater access to major gas and oil exploration projects in Central Asia as many of the SCO countries have huge reserves of oil and natural gas.
India feels that as an SCO member, it will be able to play a major role in addressing the threat of terrorism in the region.
