India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Thursday to attend the 17th Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Dushanbe meeting is the first major conference since Kyrgyzstan took over the SCO chairship in June this year.
The two-day gathering of SCO leaders that began on Thursday is the second CHG meeting since India, along with its South Asian neighbor Pakistan, became full members of the Eurasian inter-governmental organization in June 2017. Swaraj had represented India in the last year's meeting in Sochi, Russia.
The CHG meeting is the second highest level gathering of SCO leaders, just behind the Summit of Heads of State Council, which is the supreme decision-making body in the organization.
"The SCO CHG meeting is a forum that enables India to engage with SCO member countries and observer states of Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia," wrote India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement. It continued: "the leaders will be discussing prospects for further development of SCO and will exchange in-depth views on current international and regional issues."
SCO was founded in 2001 in Shanghai with China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as founding members. With the exception of Uzbekistan, the other countries were members of the Shanghai Five mechanism, which preceded SCO and set the foundation for the larger grouping.
"In 2015, the Tashkent SCO Summit conceded the rightful desire of India to assimilate in the Shanghai Spirit (that underlines the core values of SCO) and so extended its membership, first ever since its formation, to India along with Pakistan," Yenching Scholar Veeresh Kanduri told CGTN Digital.
A 'SECURE' idea for SCO
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks on during a restricted session of the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, in Qingdao in China's Shandong Province, June 10, 2018. /VCG Photo
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India has participated in a number of SCO events including over 12 ministerial level meetings since joining SCO last year, according to the MEA statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the official delegation at this year's SCO Summit in China's eastern coastal city of Qingdao on June 9-10, where he put forth New Delhi's SCO vision.
From an Indian perspective, New Delhi would like to utilize the SCO platform in boosting its regional outreach to Central Asia and Eurasia through cooperation in trade, security and connectivity.
Summarizing India's objective to facilitate comprehensive security in the SCO region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi coined the acronym SECURE at the Qingdao summit.
"There are six dimensions summed up in the English word secure. S stands for the security of citizens, E for economic development for all, C is for connecting the region, U is for uniting our people, R is for respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and E is for environmental protection," he reasoned.
Modi also called for greater people-to-people engagement between India and other SCO members while aiming to double the number of tourists from the region. New Delhi is reportedly planning to organize an SCO food festival as well as a shared Buddhist heritage exhibition in India.
Combatting terror, religious extremism
India military personnel march during the ceremonial opening of the 2018 SCO Peace Mission drills in Chebarkul, Russia, Aug. 24, 2018. /VCG Photo
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The Indian Prime Minister subsequently visited the five Central Asian nations - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan – in July as part of India's SCO outreach.
"Modi's visit… under the extended neighborhood framework solicits New Delhi's flourishing geopolitical interests in the region. Though geopolitical interests are the prime motive behind New Delhi's SCO dream, only consistent efforts in the Central Asian nations actualizes it," Kanduri said.
"In the prevailing geopolitical environment, India well positioned to offer the transcendent assistance to the Central Asian nations," he added.
India is also keen on regional cooperation for countering terrorism, religious extremism and separatism. The objectives of SCO in these aspects align perfectly with New Delhi's own interests.
In 2005, the SCO formed Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), a framework for sharing information and joint counterterrorism measures between member states. Ever since, the SCO has successfully nullified 600 would-be attacks and extradited more than 500 terrorist through the RATS mechanism.
At the 16th CHG meeting in Sochi, Swaraj emphasized the India can improve its counterterrorism experience through RATS by working toward intelligence sharing, law enforcement, developing best practices and technologies, mutual legal assistance, extradition arrangements and capacity building among other measures.
"India's three decades of comprehensive counterinsurgency operations will significantly boost the capabilities of RATS centre in Tashkent to maintain peace in the region," Kanduri said echoing Swaraj's views.
Potential for trade and connectivity
India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj meets Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the sidelines of the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, Oct. 11, 2018. /Photo via India's Ministry of External Affairs
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Besides security, SCO provides a great vehicle for India to enhance its trade ties in the Central Asian Region (CAR). The CAR accounts for around 10 percent of the global oil and energy supplies.
Being one of the largest consumers of energy worldwide, New Delhi's participation in the SCO gives it an opening into CAR's huge reserves through potential energy projects such as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline and Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) electricity transmission projects.
India's bilateral economic relations with Central Asian countries remain modest despite having centuries-old history of cultural and religious ties. The SCO can substantially increase India's overall engagement with the CAR economies and create new trade opportunities.
There are already plans afoot to have a free trade agreement (FTA) for SCO countries by 2020, and India would do well to be a part of the pact with the potential to redefine regional trade and commerce.
Connectivity through the region is a prerequisite for trade ties to flourish and Modi clearly said that it is top of mind in his plenary address at the Qingdao summit.
"Connectivity in SCO region and in our neighboring countries is a priority for India. We welcome such new connectivity projects that are inclusive, sustainable, and transparent and which respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations," he stressed.
India-Pakistan rivalry?
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Despite reasonable concerns over the impact of the India-Pakistan rivalry on SCO, many observers feel that the multilateral forum may just provide the much-needed platform for dialogue between the combative neighbors.
"The SCO can bring Pakistan and India together on a platform where they can talk, exchange and have a good view on how to cooperate with one another. So, this organization can play a very important role in the politics of South Asia," Zoon Ahmed Khan, a visiting fellow from Pakistan at the Institute of Belt and Road Initiative, Tsinghua University, told CGTN Digital.
"I understand that one of the biggest concerns that the founding SCO members had was what if the two nations (Indian and Pakistan) bring their bilateral disagreements into an organization that's very functional and very effective," she noted.
However, both the countries have worked together with the other SCO members over the last year and have quelled those fears to an extent. Both India and Pakistan, in a rare feat, even took part in the SCO joint military exercise in Russia this August.
"If Pakistan and India can speak together effectively, cooperatively and understandingly on the SCO, they can take that energy back into SAARC, and back into bilateral communications," Khan said.
In the long run, India appears to be a natural fit in the SCO with immense potential to contribute to regional growth as well as benefiting from the resulting connectivity, energy and security projects. The SCO also provides an opportunity for India to balance its ties with China, Russia, Pakistan and the other member countries as they collaborate for a "SECURE" Eurasian region.
(Cover: India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is received by her Tajik counterpart Sirojiddin Muhriddin, ahead of the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Oct. 11, 2018. /Photo via India's Ministry of External Affairs)
