SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION AND INDIA.

 After the disintegration of erstwhile USSR Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and China grouping popularly known as Shanghai five emerged in 1996 as a result of series of border demarcation and dimilitarisation discussions which the four former Soviet Republics held with China to ensure peace,security and stability in the region. Following the entry of Uzbekistan to the Organisation in 2001Shanghai five was renamed as Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).The SCO charter was signed in 2002 and came into force in 2003. India was accorded observer status  in 2005.Realising India's potential to act as the balancing power in a region dominated by China, Russia supported India's entry to SCO,in turn as expected China sponsored membership to Pakistan as a counter strategy and accordingly both India and Pakistan became members in 2017.Iran is set become the 9th  permanent member of the Organisation in 2023. The organisation has emerged as one of the largest transregional  international organisation with both Russian and Chinese as official language ,having located Secretariat at Beijing China, and Executive Committee of the Regional Anti Terrorism Structure (RATS) in Tashkent Russia.

Recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organization SCO Summit 2022 held in Samarkand,  Uzbekistan declaration advocated " commitment to peaceful settlement of differences and disputes through dialogue and consultations".The principles of mutual respect of sovereignty,  independence,territorial integrity of the states ,equality, mutual benefit, non interference in internal affairs and non use or threat of use of force etc are adopted as the basis of sustainable development of international relations. Member countries are planning to develop common principles and approaches to form a unified list of terrorists,  separatists and extremist organisations whose activities are prohibited on the territories of SCO member states.In the context of Western countries cutting their dependence on Russian gas Russia is exploring the prospects of new markets particularly in India and China. India urged SCO members to give each other full rights to transit as it would ensure connectivity and assistance in establishing reliable and resilient supply chains in the region.Closer connectivity with Central Asia can be developed via Chabahar port in Iran which India has invested heavily and it can be broadened to serve as a regional  commercial transit centre by recently reactivated talks for the long stalled Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India gas pipeline. With regard to food security and energy crisis, as the whole world is facing unprecedented energy and food crisis, India emphasised initiatives to promote millets and address problems related to food security. Other suggestions made by India in the summit include setting up of working group on traditional medicine, Already WHO opened its Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Gujarat in April 2022.Varanasi has been declared as the SCO tourism and cultural capital for 2022-23 to promote the rich cultural and historical heritage of the country and the tourism potential of SCO member states.Obviously such measures will boost tourism,cultural as well as humanitarian exchanges between India  and the SCO member states underlying India's ancient civilisational links with member states of SCO particularly Central Asian Republics.

The Samarkand Summit passed 121 declarations and plan for for 2023-2027. Declarations include thay the Presidency of the SCO for the forthcoming period passes to India and the next meeting of  the Council of Heads of State will be held in 2023 in India .The Summit observed that the world is undergoing global changes, entering a new era of rapid development and large scale transformation accompanied by stronger multipolarity,increased interconnectedness, accelerated pace of informatisation and Digitalisation. Against this background international challenges and threats are becoming more complex, degrading existing local conflicts and crises are intensifying.Growing technological and digital divide ,continued turbulence in global financial markets, reduction in investment flows, instability in supply chains, increased protectionist measures and other barriers to international trade add to the volatility and uncertainty in global economy. Member states are in favour of encouraging regional economic cooperation in various forms, promoting an enabling environment for trade and investment with a view to achieving progressive free movement of goods, capital, services and technology. Member states also decided to establish special working groups on- Start-ups and Innovation, Poverty Reduction and on Traditional Medicine. 

The SCO as a Euroasian political, economic and military organization is largely seen as a counter weight to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.(NATO).India's position of equidistance between USA and Russia and issues with China and the existing geo political conflicts reminds us about the old non aligned policy which was essentially different from the prevailing global situation. India's external policy should be creative enough to leave an opening for an improvement of India China relations in the long run.The fact remains despite the tensions China remains the second largest trading partner of India (after USA)  largely supplying essential inputs including lion's share Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) to Indian Pharmaceutical industry and exports.While rebuilding healthy relations with China is the important goal in the long term the question remains what can be done in the tensed short period especially in the context of  growing closeness between Russia and China, Pakistan Iran and others. 

It may be noted here that India's membership in SCO has offered several advantages including connectivity to Central Asia,crucial for monitoring the security situation related to Afghanistan and Pakistan. India has potential to play a strategic role in the region dominated by China. In Samarkand China declared that it will reject the US- India proposal to blacklist a Pakistan based terrorist. Moreover Moscow's increasing dependence on China has also undermined the traditional  neutrality approach maintained by Russia in India - China relations.It has been observed that Beijing has been building SCO and even BRICS as an ante West platform as evidenced by the choice of new members and invitees made by China. Instead SCO should be proactive in balancing the compulsions of neighbourhood and the growing relationship with rest of the world.while  India has a military logistics Exchange Memorandum Agreement (IEMOA) with USA at the same time it has developed the international North South Transport corridor connecting Russia and India via Central Asia and Iran with three sanctioned states. Already India has increased oil purchases from Russia which is  struggling due to western sanctions. In short India should build more vibrant proactive and wider partnership with its forthcoming leadership roles in both SCO  and G20 on issues of common concerns such as climate change, terrorism,poverty eradication, future pandemic, energy transition, protection and promotion of democracy to develop multi pronged strategy to deal with changing world order. In fact both Geo Politics and Geo Economics are equally important.