India chaired the 25th Meeting of SCO Ministers Responsible for Economic and Foreign Economic Activity in New Delhi. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal led the meeting, which brought together economic ministers from SCO member states. India advocated for expanding trade and economic cooperation using local currencies, reducing dependence on the US dollar. The meeting also discussed enhancing connectivity, simplifying trade procedures, and deepening cooperation among SCO economies under China's 2025 chairmanship rotating to India.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance founded in 2001 in Shanghai. Its original members were China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined as full members in 2017, and Iran became a member in 2023. The SCO now represents nearly half the world's population and about 30% of global GDP, making it one of the largest regional organisations by territory and population.

The SCO has three standing bodies: the SCO Secretariat (Beijing), the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure or RATS (Tashkent), and the SCO Business Council and Interbank Consortium for economic cooperation. The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body.

India's push for local currency trade within SCO is significant. It aligns with RBI's framework for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports and imports in Indian Rupees (INR), introduced in July 2022. India has been advocating de-dollarisation in trade settlement across multiple multilateral forums including BRICS and now SCO. This is directly relevant to India's external payments architecture and reduces forex vulnerability.

The Economic Ministers' meeting is a sectoral ministerial mechanism of the SCO — one of several specialist ministerial tracks (defence, foreign affairs, culture, education, environment) that feed recommendations upward to the Heads of State Council. India held the SCO Presidency in 2023 and hosted the SCO Summit virtually that year, and now participates actively in the rotating ministerial framework.