New Delhi: The National Security Advisor of India, Ajit Doval on Wednesday welcomed the top officials as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) level NSA meeting kickstarted in Delhi.

As India is the current chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), NSA Doval delivered the opening remarks at the meeting.

India became a full member of SCO on June 9, 2017. There are four Observer States viz Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia and six dialogue partners - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Pakistan and China are likely to attend the SCO-NSA meeting virtually.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental organization established in 2001 and it comprises eight member states, namely, India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In 2022, India assumed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Chairship for 2023.

Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, will attend the annual meeting of the secretaries of security councils of SCO member states in New Delhi on Wednesday, according to a statement by Russian Security Council, a Russian embassy official confirmed to ANI.

Earlier this month, Pakistan also attended the meeting of heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tourism administrations held in Kashi.

India is hosting a number of activities in the run-up to the SCO summit, which is scheduled to take place in Goa this summer. Interestingly, the defence ministers' meeting, which is slated to take place in Delhi from April 27-29, will be the next significant SCO gathering.

Following the Defence Ministers' meeting, the next SCO meet is the Foreign Ministers' meet that would be held in Goa on May 4-5.