“India hopes that zero tolerance for terrorism will be upheld.”
-Dr. S. Jaishankar (External Affairs Minister, India)
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: Recent Summit
Dr. S. Jaishankar, at the recently conducted SCO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting stated India’s long-standing commitment with regards to the globalised menace of terrorism, that has now found its nefarious roots in almost all the nations and continents of the world, spreading its tentacles like a squid or a cuttlefish. In no unambiguous terms, was it stated when Dr. S. Jaishankar met Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng in Beijing, on the sidelines of the Foreign Minister’s meeting of the SCO, also attended by his counterpart from Pakistan.
Recently, India had disagreed and rightfully refused to sign the joint declaration of the SCO, because of there being no mention of the Pahalgam terror attack, absence of homage being paid to the innocent civilians killed, and condemnation of cross-border abominable terror designs.
The SCO by-laws mandate that there must be full consensus for joint declaration being signed at the end of each summit held. Sh. Rajnath Singh, the present honourable Defense Minister of India, had in no unclear terms stated that, India has sought to build consensus on addressing global challenges based on the motto of, “One Earth, One Family, One Future”; and that there cannot be any ambiguous statements from the SCO on impeding issues such as terrorism, money laundering, climate change, sustainable development, et al. But to understand what SCO stands for and what is the road ahead for the SCO-India relationship from here on, it is quite inevitable to understand the genesis of the same.
Genesis and Re-Birth: What SCO Needs
An inter-governmental political, economic, and security alliance, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was founded in the year 2001 by nations namely- Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, with the first summit being held in Shanghai, China, in the year 2001 itself. The basic foundational aim of SCO, is to promote cooperation and mutual support in collaborative areas such as trade, investment, energy, transportation, and security.
However, it is the well-known “Shanghai Spirit” which forms the basic core and essence of the SCO. It basically stands for mutual trust, equality and equity, collaborative consultation, respect for cultural diversity, mutual benefit sharing, and the common pursuit of development being shared by all the member nations.
With official working languages of Chinese and Russian; the SCO has certain main objectives such as- relationship strengthening among member states. Promotion of cooperation in areas such as political affairs, economies, trade, scientific-technical, cultural, educational and other spheres as well as in energy, transportation, tourism, and environmental protection; safeguarding the regional peace, security, and stability; and creation of a democratic equitable international political and economic order.
Although, SCO started as a cooperation organisation of “Shanghai Five” with the five founding members (1996), it was only after the addition of Uzbekistan that Shanghai Five was renamed as SCO. However, it was only after the summit meeting at Ufa, in Russia in 2015, that India and Pakistan were decided to be admitted as full members of the SCO, which culminated in 2017 at Astana, whereby India and Pakistan were made full SCO members. It was in 2021, that Iran as well was made a full-fledged member of the SCO. Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia are Observer Nations of the organisation, whereas nine nations are dialogue partners of the SCO.
These include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Sri Lnaka, Turkey, Egypt, Nepal, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. SCO consists of several internal organisations such as the Council of Heads of State, the Council of Heads of Government, the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Council of National Coordinators, the Secretariat, the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), the SCO Business Council, and the SCO Inter-bank Consortium.
SCO is one of the world’s most renowned inter-governmental organisation which covers 40% of the world’s global population, and nearly 20% of the global GDP, with 22% of the world’s land mass. This means that the SCO, can do wonders in the international diplomatic circles, and can take steps to bring a positive change in the world. The SCO can act as a reinforcing superpower to bring about stability across borders, mutual respect for sovereignty and integrity of all nations across the world, as well as increased connectivity across mediums for better communications and transactions to be undertaken.
However, it is actually the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) that holds the key to unleashing the complete potential of SCO because the whole paraphernalia and geopolitical stage that SCO acquires is marred with regional, bilateral, and at times multilateral hostilities, which cannot be solved by mere dialogues, and urgently require tough actions.
In times, when terrorism is taking over the whole global stage, and diplomacy is proving not to be enough for the same, an SCO-mandated organisation such as RATS can take up a call and lay down pointed agendas that if followed, may help in eradicating the menace of terrorism in the Indian subcontinent, and the Central Asian region, altogether.
This can include- tougher action on money laundering and hawala transactions, heightened coordination between the intelligence agencies of all the nations, following the objectives of international anti-money laundering agencies like FATF (Financial Action Task Force), synchronised sharing of information regarding terrorist networks, working collaboratively to dismantle the whole terrorism-smuggling-money laundering nexus actively, working tirelessly with synergy between civilians-governments-armed forces for better output on all actions taken, and lastly, honestly, and with integrity working towards actually achieving the said targets of the SCO-RATS.
Parting Note: The Indian Way
Conclusively, from the aforementioned facts it is extremely clear that SCO has yet not worked out its complete potential. What can the SCO do? It can bring stability and greater working relationship for the Indian subcontinent with the Central Asian nations, it can counter terrorism better than any of the other international organisations, it can work closely with BRICS and QUAD to take up common issues and objectives between themselves, manage and promote regional stability, with increased connectivity and economic cooperation (to resist global economic turmoils), and boost intra-country, as well as inter-country relationships amongst themselves.
However, certain challenges such as the ones mentioned, will definitely need a little digging to be tackled and solved in a much better way possible. SCO, by and far is a thoughtful organisation, which has objectives placed at the right places.
However, it is actually the execution and successful application of all these mandates which must be made more actionable for better partnerships and much better summit results. This can only be achieved when all the members diplomatically agree to collaborate in a much more effective manner possible, keeping all differences aside, with the least number of friction points in play.
