What is SCO?

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has decided to include India as a full-fledged member, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, ahead of the summit of the six-nation grouping which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. India is an observer in the SCO and has expressed its desire to play a larger and more meaningful role as a full member of the organisation. The SCO is an intergovernmental organization founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001 by the six countries.

The main objectives of the SCO are to: (i) strengthen relations among member states; (ii) promote cooperation in political affairs, economics and trade, scientific-technical, cultural, and educational spheres as well as in energy, transportation, tourism, and environmental protection; (iv) safeguard regional peace, security, and stability; and (v) create a democratic, equitable international political and economic order. With assistance from the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, SCO members have developed an intergovernmental agreement on facilitating international road transport.

A programme for multilateral trade and economic cooperation, signed in September 2003, defines the basic goals and objectives for economic cooperation within the SCO framework. It also laid out priorities and achievable steps for cooperation, the free movement of goods, capital, services, and technologies over two decades.

New Delhi has already been knocking at the grouping’s door for the last three years as it sought a greater role in the SCO, in the light of fast changing geo-political situation in the region, in particular, in view of the planned US withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The possibility of an increase in the number of prospective partners of the SCO in the near future, India’s admission into the organization has rather gained an imperative importance.

Joining the SCO as a full member will enable India to be a part of one of the world’s most powerful regional groups and increase the level of multilateral economic cooperation and the flow of trade and energy resources. It will also align India’s national security interests with that of region’s countries, especially of Russia and China.