India hosts meeting of SCO ministers handling economy, foreign trade

India hosted the 19th Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) ministers responsible for foreign economy and foreign trade activities on Monday, with Union minister Piyush Goyal calling upon the member nations to enhance trade and investment critical for ensuring speedy recovery from the aftermath of the pandemic.

In his opening remarks, Goyal said the current crisis due to COVID-19 was a clarion call to the SCO countries to leverage the economic strength and explore partnerships that enhance trade and investment in the region.

Cooperation should be continued to enhance intra-SCO trade and investment which would be critical in ensuring the speedy recovery from the pandemic. Every nation’s world view is shaped by its civilization and philosophical tradition. India’s ancient wisdom sees the world as one family, he added.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Hardeep Singh Puri also addressed the meeting. The virtual meeting was attended by the Secretary General of SCO and ministers from, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In the meeting four documents, a statement on the response to COVID-19 reinforcing the need for greater cooperation for access to medicines and facilitation of trade, statement on multilateral trading system of ministers of SCO countries who are WTO members, statement on SCO Cooperation on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and action Plan for Implementation of MOU to stimulate cooperation within the framework of SCO in the field of MSMEs were adopted.