Headquartered at Beijing, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a Eurasian  intergovernmental organization instrumental to encourage the effective cooperation between the Member States in such spheres as politics, trade, economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, etc. Besides, the organisation strives to jointly ensure and maintain peace, security and stability in the region while promoting new democratic, fair and rational international political and economic international order.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The SCO currently comprises nine Member States - China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India  &  Pakistan added in 2017 and the newest member Iran which got its membership in 2023. Please note, all countries of Central Asia are its member except Turkmenistan which has declared “permanent neutrality” and thus not part of such groupings.

The grouping provides India a platform to negotiate on the issue of state sponsored terrorism, border aggressions exhibited by China apart from common issues of developing countries like trade issues in WTO regime, common but differentiated responsibilities to tackle climate change and so on.