By R Anil Kumar
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Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit is scheduled to take place in Islamabad on October 15, 16
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India has not requested for any bilateral meeting during the Summit
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The 23rd meeting of the heads of government of the member states of the SCO is set to take place in Islamabad on the 15 and 16 of October
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The SCO, established in 2001, aims to promote political, economic, and security cooperation in the region.
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It is the world’s largest regional organisation, covering 80 per cent of Eurasia, 42 per cent of the global population, and 32 per cent of the global GDP in the purchasing power parity terms.
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The SCO comprises Pakistan, China, India, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus – with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”
New Delhi, October 14. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) 23rd heads of government of the member states summit, is scheduled to take place in Islamabad on October 15 and 16, 2024.
The SCO, established in 2001, aims to promote political, economic, and security cooperation in the region.
The SCO comprises Pakistan, China, India, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus – with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners.
A four-member official delegation from India headed by External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar will be participating in the two-day summit.
The EAM will involve himself in the delegation level talks and there will be no bilateral level talks with Pakistan as India has not requested for any bilateral meeting.
EAM JAISHANKAR PARTICIPATES
By maintaining the past practice and sending the External Affairs Minister to lead the Indian delegation, New Delhi has sent out a strong message that India takes its association with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) seriously.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), comprising ten members—Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Belarus—is the most significant institution, encompassing a wide swathe of territory and population in Eurasia.
It is the world’s largest regional organisation, covering 80 per cent of Eurasia, 42 per cent of the global population, and 32 per cent of the global GDP in purchasing power parity terms.
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar will visit Pakistan to participate in the Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) meeting of the SCO in Islamabad on October 15-16, 2024.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who will be chairing this meeting, had invited his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in the event. Instead, India has decided to depute EAM to head the Indian delegation.
It needs to be understood that the SCO has two high-level institutions, the highest being the Heads of State (HOS) Council, followed by the Heads of Government (HOG) Council.
The HOS Council is attended by the presidents of different member countries, including Russia, China, and the four Central Asian countries that are members of the Organisation.
Since the Prime Minister is the executive head of the administration in India, he has always attended the meetings of the HOS Council.
PM Modi attended the HOS Council meetings in Ufa, Russia, in 2015; in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2016; in Astana, Kazakhstan, in 2017; in Qingdao, China, in 2018; in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2019, and in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in 2022.
HOS Summits in 2020 and 2021 were held virtually, in which also PM Modi participated. India hosted the HOS Summit virtually in 2023. PM Modi could not attend the HOS Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 4, 2024, held in person because of certain unavoidable domestic engagements. He deputed EAM Jaishankar to represent him at the Astana Summit.
As far as the Heads of Government Summits are concerned, PM Modi has never attended any of them. He has mostly deputed either the External Affairs Minister or Defence Minister to represent India in these meetings.
It will be pertinent to mention that on account of the then-ongoing pandemic, India had virtually hosted the 19th Heads of Government Meeting of the SCO in 2020.
That year, PM Modi had participated online in the Heads of State Summit organised by Russia just 20 days prior in early November, 2020.
Prime Ministers of member countries Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan participated virtually in the meeting except Pakistan, which was represented by its Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
What Experts Say:
It is to the government’s credit that, realising the importance of the SCO for India, it has taken the correct decision to depute EAM to lead the Indian delegation.
It needs to be recognised that amongst other benefits, one of the most significant advantages of SCO for India is to provide opportunities to the Indian Prime Minister, Ministers, and senior officials to meet the Presidents and counterpart Ministers and officials, respectively, of the Central Asian countries, at the SCO meetings.
Such meetings among varied interlocutors provide a valuable opportunity for Indian leaders to meet and interact with their counterparts, including national security advisors, businessmen, industrialists, academics, experts, etc from Central Asian countries.
While India enjoys civilisational and historical ties with all countries of Central Asia, which it refers to as its “extended neighbourhood”, its relations with these countries have not realised the desired potential because of the absence of common borders with any of these countries.
In the absence of such contiguity, frequent meetings at the highest level under the aegis of the SCO can provide significant opportunities for expanding engagement with these countries.
India’s participation in some recent SCO high-level meetings has been considered by analysts and academics to be suboptimal.
The first in this category is the decision last year by India to host the SCO Summit virtually on July 4, 2023. However, the decision was seen to be abrupt in view of the fact that several countries in Central Asia and Iran had confirmed the participation of their Presidents in person in the summit.
Thereafter, PM Modi was not able to participate, either in person or virtually, in the SCO Heads of State Summit in Kazakhstan on July 4, 2024, because of his preoccupation with the first Parliament Session after the elections, which returned him to power consecutively for the third term.
Most recently, the Commerce Secretary participated virtually in place of the Commerce Minister, in a meeting of the Commerce Ministers of SCO countries hosted by Pakistan in September 2024.
Absence of a delegation from India or virtual participation by the Indian delegation in the HOG Meeting in Islamabad in October 2024 would have sent out an unfortunate and inaccurate message that India is not fully invested in the SCO.
By maintaining the past practice and sending the EAM to lead the Indian delegation, India has sent out a strong and clear message that India takes its association with the SCO seriously and is keen to expand and deepen its engagement with that institution.
Jaishankar himself, as well as the spokesperson of the Indian foreign office, have stated that the visit is being undertaken purely in the context of the SCO Summit and that there will be no bilateral content of the visit.
India has made it clear that it will not ask for a bilateral with Jaishankar’s Pakistani counterpart.
Contacts at the official level between the two delegations in the context of the SCO deliberations are expected to take place. It is however unlikely that discussions on bilateral relations will be held between members of the delegations.
This will be the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan after a gap of nine years. The last visit was by the then-EAM Sushma Swaraj in early December, 2015 for the Heart of Asia Conference on Afghanistan.
Jaishankar, who was then India’s foreign secretary, had accompanied EAM Sushma Swaraj to this conference. It was decided during that visit to launch an 8-point comprehensive bilateral dialogue to normalise ties between the two countries. This, however, did not see the light of day on account of the attack by Pakistani terrorists on Pathankot on 1st January, 2016.
It needs to be realised that the ball is squarely in Pakistan’s court. Pakistan had taken the initiative to call back its ambassador from India and expel the Indian ambassador in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
Moreover, Pakistan is guilty of fomenting terror against India. The only condition that India has imposed on starting a dialogue with Pakistan is that Pakistan should stop inflicting terrorism on India. Pakistan has not taken any serious action against the terrorist outfits supported by it. On the contrary, cross-border attacks from Pakistan against Indian civilians and security forces are continuing and, in fact, have increased in the Jammu region in recent months.
It is certain that the Indian delegation under Jaishankar’s leadership will participate actively in the HOG Summit in Islamabad. The positions India adopts on various issues will be guided by India’s age-old ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The Whole World is a Family) as well as India’s vision of SECURE — Security, Economic development, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and Environmental protection — which was articulated by PM Modi during India’s Presidency of the SCO in August 2023.
(Article Generated through inputs from PIB Archive)
