India News | Deputy NSA Misri Attends SCO Meet in Tashkent; Calls for Combating Terrorism

New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) Deputy National Security Adviser Vikram Misri on Friday attended a conclave of top security officials of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tashkent, where he called for united efforts to combat terrorism and terror financing.

In his address, Misri also emphasised India's humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

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"Dy NSA @VikramMisri participated in SCO NSAs meeting in Tashkent. Called for combating terrorism, terror financing, transnational organized crime, illicit drug trafficking and strengthening information security," the Indian embassy in Uzbekistan tweeted.

"Emphasized India's humanitarian assistance to Afghan people," it said.

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Misri also met Uzbekistan's Acting Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov and discussed advancing bilateral cooperation in areas of security and defence.

Norov described the talks "very fruitful".

"We discussed a wide range of issues on the Uzbek-Indian agenda, as well as interaction within the framework of multilateral structures, in particular the #SCO," Norov tweeted.

Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended a meeting of foreign ministers of SCO countries in Tashkent.

The SCO, seen as a counterweight to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is a key economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations.

India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)