The regular meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers Council took place on 4 and 5 May, 2023, in Panaji, Republic of India, chaired by Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu, Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China Qin Gang, Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Jeenbek Kulubaev, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Tajikistan Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Bakhtiyor Saidov, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming, and Director of the SCO RATS Executive Committee Ruslan Mirzayev took part in the meeting and delivered their remarks.
The foreign ministers praised the SCO for serving as a major multilateral platform in Eurasia and its contribution to ensuring regional security and stability, as well as promoting prosperity and development.
Preparing the political agenda for the upcoming SCO Summit in New Delhi ranked high on the Foreign Ministers Council meeting’s agenda. The participants agreed on the agenda for the Heads of State Council meeting and the list of documents to be submitted for consideration to the heads of the SCO member states, including the drafts of the New Delhi Declaration and several other important statements prepared by India as the SCO’s current chair.
The foreign ministers agreed to deepen cooperation on security matters, as well as to step up their combined efforts to fight terrorism, extremism, separatism, drug trafficking, cybercrime, etc. They paid special attention to Afghanistan and explored ways to assist the country in its efforts to stabilise the situation and rebuild the country.
They also had a meaningful exchange of views on expanding practical cooperation in transport, energy, finance, investment, free trade, digital economy, as well as stepping up cultural exchanges and working together to protect the environment and countering climate change.
The ministers paid special attention to expanding the SCO membership by completing the accession procedures for the Islamic Republic of Iran, accelerating formal procedures to enable the Republic of Belarus to join the SCO as a member state, and reaching out to more SCO dialogue partners.
The meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers Council was followed by the signing of memorandums granting the SCO dialogue partner status to the State of Kuwait, the Republic of Maldives, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates.
SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming held meetings with the foreign ministers of the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Tajikistan on the sidelines of the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting.