Day 48 – Q 2.What are India’s stakes in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)? What benefits would accrue from India’s membership of the grouping? Discuss.

2. What are India’s stakes in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)? What benefits would accrue from India’s membership of the grouping? Discuss. 

शंघाई सहयोग संगठन (SCO) में भारत के दांव क्या हैं? भारत को समूह की सदस्यता से क्या लाभ होगा? चर्चा करें।

Introduction:

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an influential Eurasian regional grouping consisting of Russia, China and four Central Asian Republics (CARs)—Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan—in 2017 formally approved membership of India and Pakistan, who had been observers, to now become permanent members of the body.

Body:

India’s stakes in the SCO:

• Earlier the SCO was seen as a Chinese dominated body being run with the support of Russia. With India’s addition, it will be seen as an inclusive organisation with considerably greater respectability, leverage, power and stature. 
• With two of the three largest economies (in PPP terms) viz. India and China being members of this organisation, its leverage and weight is bound to increase with passage of time.
• The significance of the SCO cannot be underestimated because of the presence of large territorial and economic powers like Russia and China, as well as the geopolitical space that the grouping occupies. The geographical and strategic space which the SCO entails is of great importance for India.

Benefits from India’s membership of the grouping:

India’s full membership will help in achieving regional and global stability and prosperity. It will also strengthen India’s position in Central Asia.

• Cultural and civilisation links: India enjoys millennia old cultural, economic and civilisation links with countries of Central Asia. India and the region were inextricably bound with each other from 3rd century BC to 15th century AD through the Silk Road. India’s disconnect with Central Asia came with Partition and the loss of direct geographical links.  Thus, it will now be able to leverage its profound, deep-rooted ties with the region.
• Diplomatic impetus: Frequent and regular contacts at the highest level between India and these countries during annual SCO Summits will help deliberate with each other on a regular basis. This will help to promote understanding and open up fresh vistas and avenues of cooperation.
• Energy co-operation: India being energy deficient country with increasing demands for energy, it is an assured market for the resource rich Central Asian countries and Russia. SCO membership could help advance talks on the construction of stalled pipelines like TAPI (and possibly IPI later) which is of considerable importance to India’s natural gas needs. 
• Knowledge sharing: India will be able to share its expertise in information technology, software, pharmaceuticals, agriculture etc to the mutual benefit and advantage of India and Central Asia. Greater contacts and exposure to each other are also likely to provide a fillip to tourism and travel between India and Central Asia.
• Security: The chronic presence and increasing challenges of terrorism, radicalism, and instability still pose a grave threat to the sovereignty and integrity not only of India, but also of countries in its broader neighbourhood. India’s participation in the SCO will be helpful for fighting against these problems.
• Check the over powering presence of China: India’s presence in SCO would also ensure that China does not dictate terms in Eurasia. This is also the concern of Russia which is in a state of a ‘soft competition’ with China in Central Asia. 
• Organisational forums: India would also benefit from the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent, which would help gain vital intelligence inputs on the movement of terror outfits, drug-trafficking, cyber security and Public information of the region.

Challenges:

• Balance of powers: Since China and Russia are co-founders of SCO and its dominant powers, India’s ability to assert itself would be limited and it may also have to either dilute its growing partnership with the West or engage in a delicate balancing act.
• BRI initiative: Except India, all the other members of SCO have endorsed China’s BRI initiative. In this regard, if in future the economic policies of SCO come to be associated with the BRI network of roads and transportation, then India would face a dilemma and even a policy setback
• RATS: India might face difficulties as the Indian understanding of terrorism is different from the other members of SCO. For SCO, terrorism coincides with regime destabilisation; whereas for India it is related to state sponsored cross border terrorism. SCO’s targets are groups like East-Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Al-Qaeda, whereas groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaiesh-e-Mohammad, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network do not come under the ambit of the SCO anti-terror structure.
• Relations with Pakistan: SCO charter prohibits the raising of bilateral issues, a conflict situation involving Kashmir might compel Russia and China to interfere to prevent any detrimental impact on the SCO.

Conclusion:

India’s membership of the SCO throws open many possibilities to achieve the huge potential of bilateral partnership. It creates a win-win situation for the organization, for Central Asia, for China, and for Russia, as well as for India. Members of SCO thus, have a huge potential to play a more substantive role in promoting peace, security, connectivity, economic development, trade, energy security, and investment within the region and beyond.