Editorial on Shanghai Cooperation Council ( SCO)

• SCO or Shanghai pact or Shanghai 5 ( Before Uzbekistan had joined).
• It is a Eurasian Political, Economic and Security Alliance, which came into being in Shanghai, China.(2001).
• India and Pakistan joined as full members in 2017 ( Astana Summit).

It is headquartered in Beijing.

• – The Heads of State Council ( HSC) is the Supreme decision making body in the SCO, Which meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation.
• – SCO is the largest regional organisation in the World ( in terms of geographical coverage and population), covering 3/5th of the Eurasian Continent and nearly half of the human population.

Guiding Principles:

Its guiding principles ( Shanghai Spirit):
* Mutual Trust and benefits.
* Equality.
* Respect for cultural diversity.
* Non-Alignment.

Objectives :

– Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states.

– Promoting Effective co-operation in politics, trade, Economy, security, etc.

– Enhancing ties in Education, Energy, Transport, Tourism, etc.

– Maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region.

– Establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

Benefits of SCO for India:

– India can dovetail its Connect Central Asia Policy through engagement with SCO.

– Combating terrorism and insurgency through SCO’s RATS mechanism ( especially the one originating from Afghanistan, funded By Pakistan).

– India can positively engage with archrivals such as China and Pakistan through SCO.

– Regional integration and stability across borders could be achieved more effectively.

– Energy Diplomacy can receive a great boost through this platform. e.g TAPI has a pipeline.

Challenges for India:

– China remains the core agenda-setter of the organisation and Russia is also engaging positively with China on the majority of cases.

– Pakistan’s Terrorist acts are getting shielded by China as RATS ( anti-terror institution of SCO) is mainly targeting AFGHANISTAN and Xinjiang Based Terrorism.

– India’s trade with SCO is around $ 100 billion, of which 90% is with China.

– China is promoting Belt and Road Initiative( BRI ) and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor ( CPEC ) through SCO , which is actually violating India’s sovereignty.

– Pakistan is also making much of bilateral issues such As Kashmir in SCO and other fora.

Way forward:

* India Should leverage this Forum for establishing Close overall relations with the Central Asian countries.

* India should work closely with China and other countries in this forum to tackle the most pressing issues of today eg Terrorism, CoVid-19 impact, Hyper Nationalism, Extremism. etc

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