China to host 2018 SCO Summit at Qingdao in June

China will host 2018 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit at Qingdao, eastern Shandong Province in June 2018. China had taken over rotating chair of SCO after17th SCO summit concluded in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan in June 2017.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

SCO is a Eurasian economic, political and security organisation headquartered in Beijing, China. It was founded in 2001. The full members of the organization are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia have observer status at present.
China had founded this grouping in 1996 and then it was called as Shanghai Five. It comprised of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. In 2001, Uzbekistan was invited to join it and SCO was officially born. After Astana Summit Declaration in 2005, SCO has emerged as a regional security organization.
The groupings main objective is military cooperation between members. It also works towards intelligence-sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia. It is primarily centred on its member nations’ Central Asian security-related concerns, often describing main threats it confronts as being terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2018