25th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Why in News ?

•  The 25th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is being held in Tianjin, China.
• India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attending this summit.
• This is considered to be the largest and most ambitious SCO summit ever as it will:
  • More than 20 world leaders will participate.
  • Heads of 10 international organizations will be involved.

• China is hosting this time and President Xi Jinping will chair it.
• The theme of the summit this time is: “Upholding the Shanghai Spirit: SCO on the Move”
• China has also declared 2025 as the “SCO Year of Sustainable Development”. 

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organization.
• It was formed in June 2001 in Shanghai (China).
• Before the formation of SCO, there was an organization called Shanghai Five. Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan were members of Shanghai Five.
• After the inclusion of Uzbekistan in the year 2001, Shanghai Five was renamed Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
• In the year 2017, India and Pakistan were made members of this organization.
• Iran was included as a full member in the 2021 summit held in Dushanbe.
• In the 24th meeting in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Belarus was included as its 10th full member.
• Russian and Mandarin are the official languages ​​of SCO.
• It is governed by the philosophy called Shanghai Spirit, which emphasizes harmony, consensus, respect for others' culture, non-interference in others' internal affairs and non-alignment.
• The SCO is chaired by member countries for one year each on a rotation basis.
• The organization represents about 42% of the world's population, 22% of land area and 20% of GDP.