Rajnath Singh Dushanbe visit will see the Defence Minister represent India at the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), to be held in the Tajik capital on Monday and Tuesday.

The Ministry of Defence announced the trip on Sunday, days after the Defence Minister held talks in New Delhi on widening India Czech defence cooperation.

Rajnath Singh Dushanbe visit to focus on trade and connectivity

The two-day meeting is about economics, not security. According to the Ministry of Defence, it will focus on strengthening cooperation among SCO member states in trade, the economy, investment, connectivity, innovation and cultural-humanitarian exchanges. The council is also expected to review the progress of ongoing cooperation initiatives and take decisions on the Organisation's financial and institutional functioning.

India remains actively engaged in various SCO mechanisms, the ministry said. It listed start-ups and innovation, digital public infrastructure and people-to-people exchanges as areas where New Delhi contributes to regional cooperation.

The meeting will give India a chance to exchange views with other members on practical and mutually beneficial cooperation within the grouping, the ministry added.

Jaishankar led India at the Moscow meeting last year

The previous CHG meeting was held in Moscow on November 18, 2025. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar represented India there, as he had at the meeting in Islamabad in October 2024.

The Council of Heads of Government is the second-highest body in the SCO after the Council of Heads of State. It meets once a year, handles much of the grouping's economic agenda and approves its budget. The SCO was founded in 2001, and India became a full member in 2017.

Tajikistan chairs the council this year

Tajikistan holds the chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of Government for 2026. Its Prime Minister, Kokhir Rasulzoda, announced this at the Moscow meeting and said Dushanbe would work to upgrade the Organisation's economic agenda.

The city last hosted the council in October 2018, when India was represented at the level of its foreign minister.

Groundwork for this week's meeting was laid in Dushanbe last month. SCO ministers responsible for foreign economic and trade activities met there on September 17 and agreed on an Action Plan for 2026 to 2030 under the Programme of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation, for submission to the CHG. India set out three pillars for international trade at that meeting, security, connectivity and opportunity, according to an official statement. It also pressed for trade facilitation and digitalisation to cut the cost and time of trade.

Defence Minister returns to a familiar venue

The Rajnath Singh Dushanbe visit is not his first on SCO business. In July 2021, when Tajikistan last chaired the SCO, he attended the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting in the city. He later chaired the defence ministers' meeting in New Delhi in April 2023, during India's own SCO chairmanship.

India and Tajikistan share defence and development ties

India and Tajikistan set up diplomatic relations on August 28, 1992. The Ministry of External Affairs bilateral brief describes the relationship as long-standing and friendly, resting on deep historical and cultural links.

Defence is part of it. On October 1, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said the indigenous Akash surface-to-air missile system had been exported to Tajikistan.

India's defence outreach across Central Asia has stayed busy through the year. The sixth India-Uzbekistan Joint Working Group on defence cooperation met in Tashkent in August. Earlier this month, Indian and Kazakh troops wrapped up the ninth edition of Exercise KAZIND with a 72-hour validation exercise at Oskemen. Both countries, like Tajikistan, are SCO members, and the grouping's Secretariat in Beijing coordinates the meetings that bring them together with India.