New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs celebrated Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Day under India's SCO chairmanship and also released a postage stamp to commemorate the occasion here on Thursday.

An event was organised to mark the day in which Ambassadors of SCO Member States, observers and dialogue partners took part. MEA Secretary (ER), Dammu Ravi and Secretary (Posts) and Chairperson of Postal Service Board, Vineet Pandey, launched the commemorative postage stamp.

MEA Official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi took to Twitter to inform about the event.

"Celebrating SCO day under India's SCO Chairmanship! Secretary(ER) Shri Dammu Ravi along with Secretary (Posts) Shri Vineet Pandey @IndiaPostOffice release a commemorative postage stamp," he tweeted.

"Ambassadors of SCO Member States, Observers and Dialogue Partners also attended the event," he added in his tweet.

India assumed the rotating presidency of the SCO at the 2022 SCO Summit held in Samarkand (Uzbekistan). As the current Chair, India will host the next Council of Heads of State Summit this year.

India has millennia-old civilisational, cultural and spiritual ties with the SCO region. From the Buddhist monks to spice traders, from adventurous explorers to Sufi saints, interaction between India and the SCO Member States has led to an exchange of goods, a fusion of ideas, and the introduction of new cuisines and art forms. India's membership of SCO in 2017, was, therefore, a reaffirmation of India's keenness to deepen its historic ties with the region.

India has maintained an active engagement with the organisation since it became a full-fledged Member State in 2017. In 2020, India hosted for the first time, the meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government, the second-highest decision-making body of the organization. India has carved a niche for itself by emphasising three new pillars of cooperation in SCO -- Startups & Innovation, Science & Technology and Traditional Medicine.

The following important milestone will be India's Chairmanship of SCO Council of Heads of State for the very first time beginning September 2022 for a period of one year.