PolicyDiplomacy
Rajnath Singh to represent India at SCO heads of government meeting in Dushanbe
The Defence Minister will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's council of heads of government in the Tajik capital on Monday and Tuesday, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday.
Key points
- Rajnath Singh will attend the 25th SCO Council of Heads of Government in Dushanbe on 19 and 20 October.
- The meeting will discuss trade, investment, connectivity and innovation and the bloc's finances.
- S Jaishankar represented India at the last meeting in Moscow in November 2025.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Dushanbe to represent India at the 25th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of Government on Monday and Tuesday, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday.
The ministry said the Tajik meeting would focus on deepening cooperation among members in trade, the economy, investment, connectivity, innovation, and cultural and humanitarian exchanges. Ministers are also due to review cooperation already under way and take decisions on the organisation’s finances and how its institutions work.
The ministry said India takes an active part in several SCO mechanisms, including those on startups and innovation, digital public infrastructure and people-to-people exchanges.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar represented the country at the previous council in Moscow on 18 November 2025. Singh was in the region in April, when he attended the SCO defence ministers’ meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
The ministry did not say whether Singh would hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines.
The SCO was founded in Shanghai in 2001 by Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became full members in 2017, and Iran and Belarus have since joined.