New Delhi: Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said that India has been playing an important role in providing High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) in the region and beyond. His remarks came while he was virtually addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) workshop on 'HADR, Risk Mitigation and Disaster Resilient Infrastructure' in Delhi on Tuesday.
During his address, the CDS said, "The launch of ‘Operation Dost’ after the earthquake struck Türkiye and Syria, showed the state of our readiness, capacities and our capabilities.” He noted that India launched 'Operation Maitri' and 'Operation Dost', which are testimony of the country's willingness to provide all possible help to all corners of the globe.
It is pertinent to note that 'Operation Maitri' was a rescue and relief operation launched by India to help Nepal deal with the aftermath of the massive earthquake in 2015. While 'Operation Dost' was launched by the Indian government this year to provide humanitarian assistance and relief materials to quake-hit Turkiye and Syria.
The SCO workshop was also attended by representatives from China and Pakistan among others. India will also host the SCO Tourism Ministers’ Meeting (TMM) on March 17-18 in Varanasi. An SCO security advisors meeting is also scheduled for March 29. Meanwhile, today India is hosting the SCO Energy Ministers meeting virtually, which also saw the participation of Russian and Chinese delegations. Simultaneously, New Delhi is also hosting the SCO meeting on shared Buddhist Heritage, which commenced today, at Vigyan Bhavan.
The focus of the conference is on India’s civilizational connection with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) nations. The event, a first of its kind, under India’s leadership of SCO brought together Central Asian, East Asian, South Asian and Arab countries on a common platform to discuss “Shared Buddhist Heritage”.
The SCO countries comprise Member States, Observer States and Dialogue Partners, including China, Russia and Mongolia. More than 15 scholars and delegates are presenting research papers on the topic. These experts are from Dunhuang Research Academy, China; Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Kyrgyzstan; State Museum of the History of Religion, Russia; National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan; Belarusian State University and International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, Myanmar, to mention a few.
The two-day programme is being organised by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of External Affairs and the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC as a grantee body of the Ministry of Culture). Several Indian scholars of Buddhism are participating in the event. India has assumed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Chairship for one year from September 2022- September 2023.
