India calls for transit access within SCO grouping
By Our special Correspondent
New Delhi, September 16: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for transit access for the member countries, while speaking during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Samarkand, Tajikistan.
Modi’s call for transit remark is significant amid India scaling up its oil imports from Russia on account of crude oil being offered at discounted rates.
“The pandemic and the Ukraine crises have created many problems for the global supply chain. The world is facing unprecedented food and energy crisis on account of the two problems,” Modi said.
He further sought to link the SCO to the roadmap top the solutions for the prevailing energy and food crisis. “The SCO should work for a resilient, diversified global supply chain. That will require better connectivity, while it will also be incumbent that we should give transit access to each other,” added Modi in his remarks.
Incidentally, India lacks the advantage of a reliable connectivity with the Central Asian countries, while Afghanistan remains a war-torn nation, and Pakistan continues to serve the interests of the ruling military elite in the country to deny any economic integration between the South Asian neighbours.
Incidentally, India has been pitching for the use of Chabahar port in Iran, which has been built with the Indian assistance for faster movement of the goods in the region.
Modi also expressed readiness to set up a special group within the SCO for sharing India’s success stories with the Startups, as the Prime Minister noted that there are over 100 Unicorns within the country. Each unicorn is valued $1 billion or above.
Modi also drew the attention of the SCO members that promotion of millets could prove helpful in countering the prevailing food crisis in the world.
“Millets have for ages been grown by the SCO member countries. Promotion of the consumption of millets could address the food crisis in the world,” said Modi.
Incidentally, 2023 is the international year of millets, which will be commemorated by the United Nations worldide.
The global millets market is said to be to the tune of $13 billion.
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