India's thousands of years old cultural and people-to-people ties with this region (Eurasia) are living testimony to our shared heritage, he said.
As chair of SCO, India has made sustained efforts to take our multifaceted cooperation to new heights, he added.
AdvertisementPM Modi said India has established five pillars of cooperation within the SCO that included startup and innovation, traditional medicine, youth empowerment, digital inclusion, and shared Buddhist heritage.
He said India supports the proposal of reform and modernisation of the SCO.
I am happy that Iran is going to join the SCO family as a new member, he said.
The Prime Minister also welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Obligation for the SCO membership of Belarus.
A number of signature events were held under the Indian presidency with the intention to further deepen people-to-people connect.
India's association with the SCO began in 2005 as an observer country. It became a full member state of SCO at the Astana summit in 2017.
India has shown a 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.
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
India and Pakistan became full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO in 2017.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
