India nudges Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to adopt English as working language

Benaulim (Goa): India, one of the eight members of the principal Eurasian plurilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, will once again push for the use of English as one of the main working languages for the group’s meetings and documents.

According to sources, the Indian initiative to introduce English as a working language has received tacit support.

“This is something that has been emphasised a lot by other members too and there is a common understanding emerging,” the sources said.

Russian and Mandarin are presently used as official and working languages in SCO. The group’s documents are also prepared in these two languages.

Besides Russia and China, four Central Asian states are among the founder members of SCO and Russian is widely spoken and written.

India is currently hosting a two-day SCO CFM in Goa with the most important work before the SCO Foreign Ministers will be to assess the status of decisions that will be approved at the SCO Summit in New Delhi in July.

With a focus on the regional, defence and political issue, India got the chairmanship of the grouping last year at the Samarkand summit and is hosting key ministerial meetings in the run-up to the SCO summit in July.

With its Secretariat in Beijing, the SCO comprises of eight member states, including India and Pakistan, China and Russia and the Central Asian states Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

With inputs from agencies

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