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Round The World
New Delhi,7 July 2023
SCO Summit
NEW DELHI DOWNPLAYS
By Dr. D.K. Giri
(Secretary General, Assn for
Democratic Socialism)
The 23rdSCO 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
(Copyright, India News & Feature
Alliance)
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