Pakistan skips inaugural SCO meet on quake ops, may join today

NEW DELHI: Pakistan skipped the inaugural session of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Joint Exercise on Urban Earthquake Search and Rescue-2019, but is likely join on Tuesday.
Addressing the opening session, Union home minister Amit Shah said: “India always attaches special importance to SCO, which is very valuable in dealing with disasters... From 1996 to 2015, about three lakh people lost their lives due to natural calamities in the SCO countries. Over two lakh lost their lives because of earthquakes. The SCO countries, thus, need to find a way out of the calamity.”

Establishing the centrality of SCO nations — China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — in tackling disasters, Shah said none of the global targets on reducing disaster losses, whether enshrined in the Sendai Framework or Sustainable Development Goals, could be met by 2030, unless achieved by the SCO countries. International cooperation in this area was very important, he added.

NDRF DG SN Pradhan said: “The aim was to provide an opportunity for enhancing coordination and cooperation between agencies.”