New Delhi, Sept. 8 -- India underscored the need to leverage the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) collective strengths for regional prosperity at the SCO Trade Ministers' Meeting held in Vladivostok on Saturday.

With the bloc accounting for 42 percent of the global population and 17.2 percent of world trade, India highlighted the urgency of diversifying exports, reducing dependencies, and building resilient supply chains.

Amitabh Kumar, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce stressed the importance of an open, fair, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core.

He called for a development-focused agenda, including a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security, effe...