Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said that India has been playing an important role in providing high availability disaster recovery (HADR) in the region and beyond.

The CDS said India undertook 'Operation Maitri', 'Operation Dost', which are testimony of its willingness to extend help to all possible corners of the globe.

"India has been playing an important role in providing HADR in the region & beyond. We undertook Operation Maitri, the supply of vaccines during Covid and recently Operation Dost. This is testimony to our willingness to extend help to all possible corners of the globe," General Chauhan said.

Operation Maitri was a rescue and relief operation in Nepal by the Indian government and Indian armed forces in the aftermath of the April 2015 Nepal earthquake while Operation Dost was the search and rescue operation initiated by the Government of India to aid earthquake hit Syria and Turkey last month.

The CDS made the remarks while virtually addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Workshop on HADR, Risk Mitigation and Disaster Resilient Infrastructure in Delhi on Tuesday.

The SCO workshop was also attended by representatives from China and Pakistan among others.

On Saturday, Pakistan's Supreme Court Justice Munib Akhtar virtually addressed the 18th meeting of Chief Justices of the Supreme Courts of the Member States of the SCO.

The Supreme Court of India hosted the meeting of Chief Justices and Chairperson of the Supreme Courts of SCO from March 10-12.

India will host the SCO Tourism Ministers' Meeting (TMM) on March 17-18 in Kashi (Varanasi), which has been designated as the first cultural capital of the SCO.

India is the current chair of the SCO. During the Tourism Ministers' (TMM) meeting, the Tourism joint action plan on the development of cooperation in Tourism among SCO member countries will be adopted, the Ministry of Tourism said in the press release.

The TMM will be preceded by the second Tourism Expert Working Group Meeting on March 14-15. During the meeting, the dignitaries will discuss and finalize Tourism Joint Action before being adopted at the SCO Tourism Ministers' meeting on March 17.

The Joint Action Plan will be adopted during the meeting of SCO Tourism Ministers on March 17 in Kashi. Notably, India has assumed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Chairship for 2023.