Focus On Iran, Afghanistan, Radicalisation, Connectivity And Regional Integration

NEW DELHI: On ‘Talking Point’, Ambassador Asoke Mukerji, India’s Former Permanent Representative to the UN, who also opened India’s first Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan Embassies in 1992 and Niva Yau Tsz Yan, Resident Researcher, OSCE Academy in Bishkek in conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi. Ambassador Mukerji was also India’s Envoy to Kazakhstan in 2005 when India applied to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). New Delhi joined ten years later when Kazakhstan was presiding. The panel analyses the Summit of the SCO Council of Heads of Heads of State and the SCO-CSTO(Collective Security Treaty Organization) Outreach Summit on Afghanistan.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi made his first overseas trip after taking over as the SCO began the process of full membership to Tehran. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar have also been added as dialogue partners. India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar who is present in Dushanbe, Tajikistan had an “exchange of courtesies and perspectives with President Raisi before the start of the SCO Summit.” The minister tweeted he also “met China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Summit in Dushanbe and discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties.”