Foreign Secy Kwatra inspects facilities at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre for SCO Summit in Delhi

New Delhi [India], April 21 : Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on Thursday visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre and inspected the facilities there.

According to the sources, the Foreign Secretary inspected the facilities at the cultural centre as a possible location for the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Orgsation (SCO) Summit which is set to take place in New Delhi.

As the current Chair, India will host the next Summit of the Council of Heads of State this year.

The Shanghai Cooperation Orgzation (SCO) is an intergovernmental orgzation established in 2001 and it comprises eight member states, namely, India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In 2022, India assumed the Shanghai Cooperation Orgsation Chairship for 2023.

India became a full member of SCO on June 9 in 2017. There are four Observer States viz Afghstan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia and six dialogue partners - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

The Shanghai Cooperation Orgzation (SCO) is a major regional powerhouse established over two decades ago to promote economic, political, and military cooperation among its member nations. The eight-member countries of SCO represent around 42 per cent of the world's total population and 25 per cent of the global GDP.

Earlier this month, Pakistan also attended the meeting of heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Orgsation (SCO) Tourism administrations held in Kashi.

It was confirmed recently that Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will visit India this May for the Shanghai Cooperation Orgzation (SCO) Summit in Goa, officials said on Thursday.

Bhutto-Zardari will lead the Pakist delegation to the meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers (CFM), according to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, during a weekly presser on Thursday, stated that Bhutto-Zardari is attending the SCO-CFM meeting at the invitation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

"Our participation at the meeting reflects Pakistan's continued commitment to the SCO charter and process and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities," the spokesperson said.

Bilawal will be the first foreign minister to visit India after a gap of nearly 12 years, reported Business Recorder. In 2011, then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabb Khar visited India.

The SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting is scheduled to take place in Goa on May 4-5.

While the SCO summit is set to take place in Goa this summer, India is holding many events leading up to it.

Another important SCO meeting will be the defence ministers' meeting scheduled to be held in Delhi from April 27-29.