New Delhi, Jul 27 (FN Bureau) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said he is looking forward to discuss defence and regional cooperation with fellow Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries in his interaction in the Tajikistan capital Dushanbe. Singh will be on a three-day visit to Dushanbe from July 27-29 to take part in the SCO annual defence ministers meeting.
Ministers of the eight SCO countries will discuss the defence cooperation issues in the meeting, and the defence ministry said a communique is expected to be issued after the deliberations. Singh will address at the meeting on Wednesday. “I look forward to discuss issues pertaining to defence and regional cooperation,” he said ahead of emplaning for Dushanbe. During his visit, the minister is expected to meet his Tajik counterpart Col Gen Sherali Mirzo and discuss bilateral and other issues of mutual interest.
Tajikistan is chairing the SCO this year and hosting series of ministerial and official-level meetings. The SCO over the two decades has become an effective platform for proposing and implementing mutually beneficial initiatives in ensuring regional security across the vast Eurasian space. The SCO has a Regional Antiterrorist Structure’s (RATS) Executive Committee in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov and RATS Director Jumakhon Giyosov met earlier this month and discussed the current situation on the borders between SCO member states and Afghanistan which in recent weeks has seen intense fighting between the government forces and the Taliban in the wake of US-NATO troops drawdown from the country.