19th  Shanghai Cooperation Organisaiton (SCO) was held in he Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

                      Terrorism, regional cooperation and the future of Afghanistan were major themes at the SCO.Member countries committed to strengthening economic cooperation and supporting the World Trade Organisation structure, while building more people-to-people ties, tourism and cultural bonds within the grouping.

• On terror, the declaration largely followed language from the Qingdao Summit declaration, reiterating SCO’s condemnation of terrorism ‘in all its forms and manifestations;
• There was support for WTO and the multilateral trading system;
• A document regarding cooperation among members on Digitalization and Information and Communications Technology was signed at the end of heads of state meeting;
• The declaration argued for an ‘inclusive peace process conducted and led by Afghans themselves’;
•  The group has failed to find consensus, such as on India’s opposition to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the declaration has mentioned only the other countries in a paragraph praising the project.
• Iran and Afghanistan participated as observers also

LEARNING WITH TIMES

SCO, pan-Eurasian grouping, is a consortium of select Asian nations that focuses on security and trade.The SCO has eight member countries which represent around 42% of the world’s population and 20% of the global GDP.

The SCO emerged from Shanghai Five (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) which was founded in 1996 after demarcation of China’s borders with the four newly independent States that appeared after collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This was transformed into today’s SCO with the induction of Uzbekistan as a new member at the Shanghai summit in 2001.

India, along with Pakistan, assumes full membership of SCO during  Summit meeting in Astana(2017), Kazhakstan.

They became seventh and eighth members of the SCO. India was admitted into the SCO as an observer at the 2005 Astana Summit along with Iran and Pakistan.

INDIA AND SCO

1. The SCO region covers almost 60 percent of the Eurasian landmass, with over 1.5 billion people included in its population, including some of the world’s leading energy-rich nations. So its importance is likely to grow in the coming years;
2. India’s growing stakes in Central Asia too are well-recognized. For India, therefore, a membership in the SCO is primarily its gateway to Central Asia. India is hoping to be able to access trade and transit routes between Russia and China, which pass through Central Asian countries;
3. Joining the SCO will be a welcome diplomatic boost to India’s efforts to connect with Central Asia;
4. Central Asia is part of India’s extended neighborhood. India’s membership in the SCO will provide a welcome opportunity for India’s leadership to meet with their counterparts from Central Asia, Russia, China, Afghanistan, and others regularly and frequently;
5. India’s potential participation in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) will be an added advantage to make this partnership more fruitful;
6. On the security front, the SCO remains committed to fighting the so-called “three evils” of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism. Here too there is much room for cooperation, as India has been a victim of terrorist attacks;
7. India could gain from SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure – manned by 30 professionals analysing key intelligence inputs on the movements of terror outfits, drug-trafficking, cyber security threats and public information.Likewise, participation in SCO’s counter-terror exercises and military drills could be beneficial to the Indian armed forces;
8. There is potential of profiting in terms of energy security;
9. SCO membership provides India a vital counter to some of the other groupings it is a part of, balancing out its stated policy of pursuing “multi-alignments”. It is a platform also for alignments on issues such as energy security, connectivity and trade.