REGIONAL COOPERATION-REPORT
Dr. Arvind Kumar*
The SCO declaration 2022 was a set of a mine run and promises and the proceedings were also banal. Yet, India’s participation was desirable and the visit of the Prime Minister was meaningful for India’s national interests and foreign policy goals.
Geopolitical realities do not present black-and-white choices. When you have complex relations with your neighbours, it makes sense to engage with their neighbours. The SCO region is India’s immediate neighbourhood. Last week all the attraction was on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in Samarqand, Uzbekistan. The two day deliberation of the 22nd meet had full attendance and was important for India for its presence being felt and significant for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to refrain from engaging China and Pakistan in bilateral dialogues on the sidelines of the summit, protrude India’s achievements and offer India’s help in promoting connectivity in setting up regional resilient supply chains and combat terrorism.
The Samarkand declaration advocated “commitment to peaceful settlement of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation”. They stressed that the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity of States, equality, mutual benefit, non- interference in internal affairs, and non-use or threat of use of force are the basis for sustainable development of international relations. The member countries are also planning to develop common principles and approaches to form a unified list of terrorists, separatist and extremist organizations whose activities are prohibited on the territories of the SCO member states. Russia was seen fetching more customers for its gas as Western countries look to cut their dependence on it and suggested that the organization should think about holding its own big athletic event.
The Shanghai Five, formed in 1996, became the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2001 with the inclusion of Uzbekistan. With India and Pakistan entering the grouping in 2017 and the decision to admit Tehran as a full member in 2021, SCO became one of the largest multilateral organizations, accounting for nearly 30% of the global GDP and 40% of the world’s population.
The summit which brought the Presidents of member states Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan together, as well as Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, and the Presidents of the observer nation, Iran, attracted great international interest. Türkiye attended the summit as special guest with other guest countries, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Mongolia. Particularly, the picture that reflects the leaders who attended the summit, sitting together and listening to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew attention of international media.
In the era of the Russia-Ukraine war, strained relations between China and the US, and unstable situations in different regions in Eurasia, the organization is one of the main platforms for regional powers in Eurasia that promotes a stable security environment. However, one cannot ignore that there are enormous internal contradictions within this organization. Bilateral hostility between India and Pakistan, China and India, fear of Russia in Central Asian Republics, and Russian apprehensions about Chinese economic dominance in its near-abroad are too obvious to gloss over.
Three developments in the last couple of years affected cohesion in SCO. First, the COVID-19 pandemic did not permit the summit level interactions among the SCO members for two years to take place. Second, the Russian invasion of Ukraine started a new kind of Cold War between Russia and the US-led West. And, third, the fourth Taiwan Strait crisis was sparked by the visit of Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taipei.
The Samarkand summit of the SCO was organized in the backdrop of those developments that have led to Russia and China coming together against the US. The spill-over effect of the Ukraine war on Europe and, in fact, the rest of the world and the psychological effect of Chinese threat to use force against Taiwan to unify it with the mainland in the Indo-Pacific influenced the proceedings in the SCO summit.
India urged Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states to give each other full right to transit, as it would enhance connectivity and help in establishing reliable and resilient supply chains in the region. India also emphasized the initiative to promote millet and address issues related to food security and playing a big role in marking 2023 as the International Year of Millets. In addition to this, under the framework of major cultural outreach programme, Varanasi (Banaras) was declared as the SCO Tourism and Cultural capital for 2022-23 to promote the rich cultural and historical heritage of the people and the tourism potential of SCO member states. The rotational presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has been handed over to India in Samarkand. Delhi will hold the presidency of the grouping for a year until September 2023 and next year, India will host the SCO summit.
The SCO declaration 2022 was a set of a mine run and promises and the proceedings were also banal. Yet, India’s participation was desirable and the visit of the Prime Minister was meaningful for India’s national interests and foreign policy goals. India traditionally is opposed to bloc formation and India happened to be the only country in the SCO that could not have been pressured to take anti-Western stands. The Samarkand summit of SCO indicates that Russia and China would not be able to make the body an anti-Western regional body, despite their current bonhomie. Yet, it is important to keep SCO as a mechanism to back multilateralism; and thus India assuming the chairpersonship of this body will be a test for Indian diplomatic skill in the run-up to the next summit in Varanasi to promote multilateralism in the emerging world order. India’s success will underline the relevance and value of its “strategic autonomy.”
That is one reason why forums like SCO come handy!
*President, India Water Foundation
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