India to focus on Global South at SCO meet

External affairs minister S Jaishankar will utilize the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government meeting in Islamabad to pitch for India's leadership role of Global South eyeing to shore up strategic partnership with Central Asian states, four of whom are members of the organisation.

While China has offered certain socio-economic initiatives as part of its SCO outreach, India is ready to extend its expertise to SCO states across a slew of sectors including digital public infrastructure, fintech, startups and healthcare, ET has learnt.

Besides priorities for the Global South amid conflicts Jaishankar's interventions at the SCO meeting will also focus on effective counter-terror mechanisms in Eurasia and inclusive connectivity corridors. India would also await any reference by Pakistan on targeting New Delhi in any form at the SCO meet and based on that a stronger response would follow, it has been learnt.