On 12 September, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov opened the CinemaSCOpe series of film screenings for the SCO family of countries organised by the Indian embassy in Beijing. As part of the CinemaSCOpe initiative, every month a popular Indian film, also dubbed in Russian, will be presented at the Indian embassy.
In his welcoming remarks, the SCO Secretary-General congratulated Indian embassy on implementing the initiative and noted the importance of CinemaSCOpe in the SCO Year of Culture, which is scheduled for 2021 ahead of the organisation's 20th anniversary.
The Secretary-General stressed that cinema is an effective tool to cooperate, narrate and present culture and traditions, and also noted that the SCO region is comprised of various civilisations and was the cradle of rich traditions in art that are reflected in our cinemas. The Secretary-General spoke about how Indian cinema has influenced Russia, Central Asia, China and other SCO countries.
Vladimir Norov noted that cooperation in culture was among the SCO's key priorities and cinema provided opportunities to study new areas of cooperation such as the use of 3D and virtual reality.
The Secretary-General expressed hope that screenings and other cultural events would promote understanding between nations and strengthen "the Shangai Spirit."
Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri thanked Mr Norov for taking part in CinemaSCOpe's opening ceremony and noted that during the SCO Summit in Qingdao in 2018 the prime minister of India had proposed an SCO film festival, and while this proposal is being discussed by the SCO member states, CinemaSCOpe is related to India's initiative. The ambassador also talked about Indian cinema's influence all over the world, including in the "SCO family."
Taking part in the meeting were SCO family ambassadors, permanent representatives to the SCO Secretariat, diplomats, journalists and honoured guests.