SCO Summit
Dr D K Giri
The 23rd SCO summit took place Tuesday afternoon, lasting nearly three hours and culminating in a release of a joint declaration of some five thousand words. The summit was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders of the member countries including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif participated.
New Delhi, the current chair of the group, did not give a clear explanation as to why the summit was being held digitally. On the contrary, New Delhi underlined that the online format, “in no way signifies, hits, insinuates the dilution of the objectives that we are trying to see of the SCO summit”.
However, observers suggest that Modi, who has been busy consolidating India’s ties with the United States, including undertaking a state visit to Washington, wanted to avoid the optics of welcoming Putin and Xi to the capital for an SCO summit. It perhaps served well for Xi Jinping as well as the Chinese President is ramping up diplomatic ties with Europe, which had nose-dived after he had extended diplomatic and economic support to Putin in the wake of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. He would have liked to avoid meeting Putin on stage face-to-face which would have raised awkward questions. The level of international scrutiny thus would have been much higher if an in-person meeting between Xi and Putin would have taken place.
The group adopted a declaration and two joint statements, one on cooperation countering “radicalisation leading to separatism, extremism and terrorism” and the second on cooperation in the field of digital transformation. The declaration issued after the summit placed enough emphasis on the situation in Afghanistan. The member states agreed that the prompt resolution of the Afghan situation is crucial for maintaining and enhancing security and stability within the SCO region.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is the successor to Shanghai Five, founded in 1996 among the People’s Republic of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the Russian Federation. The SCO came into existence on 19 September 2003 expanding to eight states as of now with India and Pakistan joining on 9 June 2017 and Iran officially joining the group in 2023. Belarus, a close Russian partner has taken the first step to join the group.
Several countries are associated as observers and dialogue partners. The SCO is governed by the Heads of State Council (HSC), its supreme decision-making body which meets once a year. The secretariat of the SCO is headquartered in Beijing and is the primary executive body of the organisation. The functions of the secretariat include, implementing organisational decisions and decrees, draft proposed documents and disseminate information about the SCO.
The SCO also has an important organisation arm called Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It serves to promote cooperation among member states against three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. The Director of SCO RATS Executive Committee is elected once in three years. Each member state of SCO sends a permanent representative to RATS.
Prime Minister Modi suggested, after the inclusion of Iran into the SCO group, an increase in use of Iran’s Chabahar Port for trade and other economic activities. He said, “The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) can serve as a secure and efficient route for landlocked countries in Central Asia to access the Indian Ocean. We should strive to realise its full potential”. Chabahar Port is in the Sistan-Balochistan province of Iran on the Gulf of Oman. Its geographic proximity to Afghanistan, India and INSTC gives it the potential to emerge as one of the most important commercial hubs. Interestingly, this is a joint project of India and Iran amounting to 85 million USD including the construction of a rail line from Chabahar Port to Zahedan.
During his address Prime Minister Modi didn’t miss out on hitting at Pakistan without naming it when he said: “some countries use cross-border terrorism and give safe haven to terrorists.” And urged the SCO countries to condemn it. However, Sharif had his response and warned against the use of terrorism as a ‘bat for diplomatic point-swearing’ and spoke about terrorism as a ‘hydra-headed monster’ to be fought with ‘full conviction’ irrespective of its source. Obviously, Modi touched the raw nerve of Pakistan.
New Delhi also reiterated its opposition to the Beijing’s most ambitious project of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The resistance to the project by New Delhi is mainly attributed to the fact that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a crucial component of the project passes through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). One arm of the BRI project that connects mainland China to the Arabian Sea stretches from Kasgar in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to Gwadar Port in Southwestern Baluchistan, Pakistan. This road passes through PoK, specifically in the region of Gilgit Baltistan. This segment links China’s western regions with the strategic part of Gwadar, providing a maritime outlet for China’s trade activities.
In July 2022, Pakistan and China, decided to invite interested third countries to join the CPEC but New Delhi opposed Beijing and Islamabad’s bid to extend it. New Delhi said that the extension plan is “inherently illegal” and “unacceptable” as the project passes through the disputed PoK.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative launched in 2013 is a strategy initiated by the People’s Republic of China that seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth. The BRI also aims to enhance connectivity and promote economic cooperation among participating countries.
Russia and China have used SCO as a means to manage their own balance of power in Central Asia and promote their shared vision of countering the western influence in the world. Putin put up the brave face as he said in reference to the war in Ukraine, “Russia was withstanding sanctions and provocations and is steadily developing”. It was his first world appearance after the insurgency in his country. Both Moscow and Beijing view this group as an alternative to the Western-led blocks and a key instrument to push back against what they see as the US-led world order.
Xi Jinping in a not so veiled attack on the United States and its allies, warned, “We must be highly vigilant against external forces inciting a new cold war in the region and creating a confrontation between camps, (and) resolutely opposed any country’s interference in internal affairs and instigation of ‘colour revolutions’.” The last phrase was in reference to government-toppling political movements. Xi stressed, “China would persist in the correct direction of economic globalisation, oppose protectionism, unilateral sanctions and extension of national security concepts. Achieving long term regional peace and shared security is our common responsibility”.
However, SCO comprises member states with a tangled waive of interests and allegiances which is quite difficult to navigate, in order to be able to work as a cohesive body to enhance common interests – regional security and cooperation. (INFA)
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