Union Home Minister addresses 10th Meeting of Heads of Departments of SCO Member States, dealing with the prevention and Elimination of Emergency Situations

News: The Union Minister for Home Affairs addressed the 10th Meeting of the Heads of Departments of SCO Member States, dealing with the prevention and elimination of emergency situations, in New Delhi. India is organizing an SCO Ministerial Meeting for the first time.

Facts:

About SCO

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation
• It was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
• The Secretariat of SCO is based in Beijing, China.

Members:

• The members of the SCO are China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
• The SCO has four observer states, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia.

Goals:

• strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states;
• promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection,
• making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region;
• Moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

Additional Information:

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Joint Exercise on Urban Earthquake Search and Rescue -SCOJtEx-2019

• It was hosted by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from 4^th to 7^th November 2019 in New Delhi.
• The aim of the exercise was to rehearse the disaster response mechanism, share knowledge, experience and technology for mutual coordination.
• The exercise also tested SCO countries’ preparedness and resilience towards effective activation of Intergovernmental interaction for immediate response