India weighs benefits of SCO membership

Having got an opportunity to join the organisation, India must have a clear pro-active policy in Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, otherwise it may risk becoming a focal point of criticism by the Central Asia States just like the way New Delhi is targeted in the SAARC

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has made an important announcement regarding the expansion of the organisation with two States – India and Pakistan – who had enjoyed Observer Status in the organisation for about a decade now.

In the past, the SCO had been hesitant to extend membership to India due to several issues. First, China wanted to treat the SCO as a forum to pursue its exclusive goals. Secondly, the SCO has been avoiding expansion because of persistent tension between India and Pakistan and the risk of SCO getting mired in South Asian conflict.

Thirdly, India has been perceived as a country which is politically and intellectually more inclined towards the West as well as to the East, rather than towards Eurasia. Indian government corridors have also been abuzz with speculations whether an Indian membership in SCO is worth pursuing.

Apprehensions have been raised about the incompatibility between India’s security interests and those of the Chinese. Also, China does not look upon Pakistan-sponsored anti-India organisations in its mission to combat terror. In this regard, if ever India tries to move any resolution against such groups, the motion will not garner support from Beijing and its puppet nations in SCO. Fighting cyber terrorism would be another challenge as China is itself a Cyber bully.

Even though SCO is not free from lacunae, it can bring credible benefits for India in an event of membership by 2016. First gain for India is geopolitical in nature, i.e., to protect its interests in Afghanistan, to keep a close watch on Russia-Pakistan nearness, to be able to rebut any useless resolutions put forward by Pakistan on the SCO table and learning from the ways SCO has been successful in containing the spread of extremism and terrorism in Central Asia.

The SCO membership could give India a new way to build promising bridges with Central Asia by giving New Delhi more leeway in pursuing its energy interests and along with Pakistan’s membership, projects like CASA, TAPI, IPI might also see the light at the end. India could gain access in the soft-political areas of the Eurasian region, such as our participation in educational, environmental protection, disaster management and rescue operations, climate change debate, water related issues and people-to-people level contact (through institutional means).

And finally, India’s participation in the SCO’s military and counter-terror exercises could prove to be beneficial for our armed forces to understand and interact with other militaries, thereby instilling greater confidence at the regional level. India would no doubt gain from the membership but an uncertainty about how much still remains because the membership is not just being extended to India but given to Pakistan as well.

However, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Cheng does not seem to carry these apprehensions. In fact, he remains overly optimistic about the SCO’s ability to bridge the differences that persist between India and Pakistan. In a nutshell, the process of expansion would bring four nuclear armed nations, China, Russia, India and Pakistan under one security bloc led by Beijing being the most important power broker.

Having got an opportunity in the organisation, India must have a clear pro-active policy in SCO, otherwise it may risk becoming a focal point of criticism by the Central Asia States just like the way New Delhi is targeted in the SAARC. Only future would be able to say whether India actually gets benefitted in SCO or not. Till then, we can at best wait and watch.

By Amrita Banerjee