India and the SCO: Conclusions of the recent summit

Iran joined as a member this time, and the process is underway to grant SCO membership to Belarus.

aiming at terror

When India and Pakistan joined the grouping, there was an understanding that member countries will not raise bilateral issues at the multilateral level. Russia had backed India’s entry; the Chinese had supported Pakistani membership.

Hosting the SCO summit could have presented an opportunity for India to engage with countries outside the Western bloc. However, India’s difficult and strained ties with China and Pakistan made it optically difficult to host an in-person summit in New Delhi.

At the SCO foreign ministers meeting in May, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar called Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari a “promoter, justifier and mouthpiece” of the terrorism industry. Wednesday’s two-and-a-half-hour summit over a Zoom call saw no fireworks, no global statements like the prime minister’s advice to President Putin in Samarkand last year that “this is not the age of war.”

However, Modi targeted both Pakistan and China over issues of terrorism and territorial integrity. With Xi and Shehbaz on the screen, Modi said some countries “use cross-border terrorism as an instrument” of policy, and the SCO should not hesitate to criticize them: there can be “no room for double standards in such serious matters.”

New Delhi has repeatedly pointed to Islamabad’s use of terror groups as instruments of “state policy,” and Beijing’s blocking of Pakistan-based terrorists from the UN Security Council list.

Modi also clashed with Beijing and Islamabad on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying it is essential, when implementing connectivity projects, to “respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of SCO member countries.

Pakistan, China

In response to the statement by India, Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif He said that “the hydra-headed monster of terrorism and extremism, whether carried out by individuals or by societies and states, must be fought with all our might,” and “any temptation to use it as a cudgel for diplomatic scoring must be avoided.”

He also took aim at India by saying that “religious minorities should never be demonized in pursuit of domestic political agendas” and, alluding to Kashmir, said that “fundamental rights and freedoms should be guaranteed for all, including those under occupation.” ”.

The SCO defends the “strict observance of the UN principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the right of peoples to self-determination,” Shehbaz said. “UN Security Council resolutions offer us a viable framework for resolving some longstanding disputes in the region,” he said.

Xi said countries should “bridge differences through dialogue and replace competition with cooperation” and “truly respect each other’s core interests and major concerns.”

In a clear reference to the US, the Chinese president said: “We must be very vigilant about external attempts to foment a new Cold War or camp-based confrontation in our region.” Xi also called for the rejection of “interference in our internal affairs” and the instigation of “color revolutions,” a reference to popular uprisings in various countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East over the past two decades.

what putin said

Speaking days after the failed mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group, the Russian president thanked the SCO leaders for “expressing their support for the Russian leadership in defending the constitutional order, life and security of its citizens.”

Putin had spoken to Modi by phone days before the summit, and the Kremlin had claimed the prime minister had “expressed understanding and support” for Russian leaders. There was no mention of this in the statement issued by India.

Putin accused “external forces” of “implementing a project near our borders to create from our neighbor, Ukraine, a de facto hostile state, an ‘anti-Russia’”. They had armed Ukraine, tolerated its “aggression” in the Donbas and “allowed themselves to plant a neo-Nazi ideology,” Putin claimed.

summit declaration

In the New Delhi Declaration issued at the end of the leaders’ summit, India refused to sign the paragraph endorsing Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). India also refused to sign a similar formulation in the 2022 Samarkand Declaration. India has always opposed the BRI because the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is part of the Initiative, violates India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

India also did not sign the SCO Economic Development Strategy, which had the Beijing stamp on it.

On terrorism, the New Delhi Declaration used similar language to the Samarkand Declaration, with a single word, “ultranationalism”, replaced by “chauvinism”.

Thus, the New Delhi Declaration stated that it was important “to develop joint and coordinated efforts by the international community” against terrorist groups, “paying special attention to preventing the spread of religious intolerance, aggressive nationalism, ethnic and racial discrimination, xenophobia, ideas of fascism and chauvinism”.

As in Samarkand, there was no mention of the Ukrainian war. Member States reaffirmed their “commitment to the peaceful settlement of disagreements and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation.” In Samarkand, the word “disputes” was used instead of “disagreements”.

strategic autonomy

The holding of the SCO summit in India is seen as a sign of its strategic autonomy, which New Delhi guards jealously. The fact that the SCO summit took place so soon after the Prime Minister’s visit to the US is seen as a key marker of New Delhi’s diplomatic position in the context of the Ukraine war and polarization between the US and China.

The world has seen significant geopolitical changes since India began its SCO journey. In 2008-09, the world was reeling under the international financial crisis, and India and the West still saw China as a potential partner.

By 2017, Xi’s China had begun to assert itself aggressively on the global stage. India, which had faced repeated border incidents since 2013, faced a two-and-a-half-month standoff at Doklam in 2017.

While the SCO is not a forum for bilateral disputes, certain bilateral divergences, differences, and disputes have invariably cast a shadow over the grouping.

India has strong ties with Russia, Iran and the countries of Central Asia. While the differences with Beijing and Islamabad are likely to pose a challenge, it is important for New Delhi to ensure that its ties with other SCO countries, especially those in Central Asia, are given a boost through this grouping.