Observers have mixed views on India’s gains from SCO membership. Many believe India has effectively highlighted terrorism on another multilateral platform. India’s involvement in SCO has worked to reduce China’s overt support for Pakistan-backed terrorism, while also fostering military exercises, intelligence sharing, and counter-terrorism efforts.
By Ambassador Jeitendra Tripathi, Indian Foreign Service (Retd)
for The News Analytics Journal
a 4 mins read.
Finally, as was speculated, India has disclosed that Prime Minister Modi will not travel to Pakistan for the upcoming SCO Heads of the Government summit on 15th-16th October. The Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar will represent the prime minister in the summit as he had done at the Astana Summit of the Heads of States in July. This has initiated a debate among political pundits about whether India is losing interest in the organisation.
The SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), conceived in the dying decade of the last century, is a successor of the grouping ‘Shanghai Five’ comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Established in 2001, SCO soon expanded with the inclusion of Uzbekistan (2001), India and Pakistan (2017), Iran (2023) and Belarus (2024). Besides these ten members who collectively account for about 80% of the landmass of Eurasia, 40% of the world’s population and 32% of the global GDP (PPP-based).
There are two observer states- Afghanistan and Mongolia and an assorted combination of fourteen “Dialogue partners” with different hues and colours -Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Egypt, Kuwait, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Türkiye and the UAE. Also, Turkmenistan (which has declared its neutrality), UNO, ASEAN and CIS are the guest invitees.
INCREASED INTEREST
The applications of Bangladesh and Algeria for observer status have been pending since 2011 and 2023 respectively. Syria (2015), Israel (2016), Iraq (2019) and Lao Peoples’ Republic (2024) have applied for the dialogue partner status. While Israel’s application will understandably not considered in the wake of its ongoing war with Hamas and Hezbollah, no decision on Bangladesh’s application for 13 years is beyond comprehension. However, going by the composition of members, observers, and dialogue partners, it seems that SCO has generated interest from a wider spectrum of countries. SCO’s stated objectives, as declared in its charter, cover a wide range of issues to include.
- To strengthen relations among the member states
- To promote cooperation in political, economic and trade affairs, science & technology, cultural & educational sphere, energy, transport, tourism, and environmental protection
- Safeguard regional peace, security, and stability
- Create demand for equitable international political and economic order.
India consistently raises terrorism, particularly state-sponsored, unsettling Pakistan, while emphasising sovereignty and territorial integrity, challenging China. At the 2023 SCO meeting, Rajnath Singh urged cooperation, indirectly criticising both nations.
To achieve these goals, SCO has four organs which are the annual summit of the heads of state, the annual summit of the heads of governments, a permanent secretariat in Beijing and RATS (Regional Anti-Terrorist System). Besides this, there are some institutional mechanisms like the meetings at the level of foreign, defence and commerce ministers and the security advisors of the member states. Working groups for specific issues are also formed as and when needed.
How has India’s performance been so far at the SCO in general? India has always tried to raise the issues of terrorism, especially state-sponsored terrorism to the discomfiture of Pakistan and respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity to the consternation of China with whom we have border issues. During the last meeting of the SCO defence ministers held in New Delhi in 2023, defence minister Rajnath Singh called for, in a veiled attack on both China and Pakistan, a robust regional cooperation framework respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty which was obviously not liked by China, a country in illegal possession of Indian territory not only in Ladakh and Arunachal but also in Baltistan in POK.
Similarly, in his address delivered by Dr Jaishankar at the SCO Heads of State Summit on July 2 in Astana, PM Modi called for assigning “priority to combatting terrorism and isolating and exposing the countries which harbour terrorists”. Earlier in 2018, P.M. Modi summed up the broader objectives of SCO as “SECURE” (Security for all, Economic development for all, C-connectivity in the region, U-uniting the people, Respect for sovereignty and integrity, E- environment protection).
Observers differ on what has India gained so far from the membership of SCO. Most of them feel that India has successfully raised the issue of terrorism on yet another multi-lateral platform like SCO which has a full-fledged organ like RATS to deal with the menace. India’s efforts in SCO have succeeded in reducing the open Chinese support to the cross-border terrorism nurtured and sponsored by Pakistan. India has been participating in the regular military exercises, intelligence sharing and counter-terrorism measures in SCO.
CONSOLIDATES RELATIONS
Connectivity is another area where India has been taking an active part in the SCO. The development of Chabahar port and rail-road connectivity from Chabahar to Afghanistan and beyond for developing the International North-South Transport Corridor is aimed at boosting our trade with Eurasia, which has thus far been almost negligible in the absence of an economical trade route. Our energy concerns can be addressed to a large extent by the fruition of not only this corridor but also the TAPI (Turkmenistan- Afghanistan- Pakistan-India) Gas-line project envisaged to carry 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
Besides, the IPA (Iran-Pakistan- India) pipeline, envisaged to carry crude oil from Iran, also may see the daylight in a few years, thus mitigating our dependence on limited sources for oil import. Similarly, the presence of the Indian Air Force in Tajikistan is also indicative of our success in reaching Eurasia in terms of defence cooperation. However, some other analysts, citing that Iran is a new member and Turkmenistan is still a guest of SCO, do not give any credit to India’s membership to SCO for the above projects. But we must not forget that bodies like SCO give us the chance to interact with other members (and even non-members) on the sidelines of the scheduled meetings which, in turn, consolidates bilateral relations.
Delays from poor coordination and contradictory rules can create doubts about India’s capability, despite improvements. However, unlike SAARC, SCO offers tangible benefits for India.
ATTEMPT TO HIJACK
Nevertheless, India also faces some challenges in SCO. The organisation, once with Russia at its steering wheel, is being dominated by China. Though we have good bilateral relations with all other members except understandably China and Pakistan, China’s attempt to hijack the group by means of its debt-trap policy and by dumping the markets of the member countries with cheap but not so durable products makes our job more difficult. Secondly, our active participation in SCO, an organisation viewed by the West as against its interest, also arouses suspicions in the eyes of the Western block about our bonafide.
Moreover, our trade with the CIS members of SCO has not been very satisfactory. According to the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, our total trade with the four CIS members (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) in 2023-24 has been a paltry sum of US$ 909.77 million! This needs to be addressed quickly if we want to develop steady relations with these members. Last, but not least, a challenge also lies in our decision-making process when it comes to funding or other types of financial liability for the projects abroad conceived by India.
Inordinate delays may caused by the lack of coordination among various stakeholders back home and a cobweb of self-contradictory rules results in a loss of interest by the other party paving the way to a wrong perception of India’s capability. True, those rules have been much simplified and decision-making much faster during the last decade or so, yet miles to go before we sleep. But we can safely infer that for India, at least SCO is not a deadweight like SAARC.
(Ambassador Jeitendra Tripathi, IFS (Retd.), Former Indian Ambassador to Zimbabwe. He has vast experience in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. He was also India’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe. The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The News Analytics Journal.)
