MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Moscow and New Delhi have reaffirmed the significance of joint work within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to further strengthen their collaboration, a joint statement following the New Delhi talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reads.
"The two parties reaffirm the importance of continued cooperation within the framework of the SCO to further advance the special privileged strategic partnership between the two countries," the statement published on the Kremlin’s website says.
According to the document, India "highly appreciated the successful holding of the meeting of the SCO Heads of Government Council on 17-18 November 2025 in Moscow," chaired by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The Russian side, in turn, "valued India’s initiative to establish and hold a Civilizational Dialogue Forum under the SCO, which will be inaugurated in India in 2026."
The SCO was founded on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai. Initially, it included six countries – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In 2017, India and Pakistan joined the SCO. Iran and Belarus joined the organization in 2023 and 2024 respectively.