{"id":31020,"date":"2024-10-18T17:56:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T12:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=31020"},"modified":"2024-10-18T17:56:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T12:26:26","slug":"sco-summit-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/18-10-2024\/sco-summit-2024","title":{"rendered":"SCO Summit 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Regional Groupings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The heads of government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was attended by <strong>India, Pakistan, China, Russia and six other member countries.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar travelled to Islamabad for the meeting, the<strong> first such visit in nine years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Due to territorial sovereignty issues, <strong>India remains the only SCO member<\/strong> to <strong>oppose China&#8217;s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The SCO&#8217;s joint communique reaffirmed support for China\u2019s BRI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The summit saw <strong>criticism of Western sanctions<\/strong> on Russia and Iran, which were deemed harmful to international trade and economic relations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Discussions between India and Pakistan indicated <strong>a potential resumption of cricket ties,<\/strong> though these are still early.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In a reference to Pakistan<\/strong>, the External Affairs Minister said, \u201cIf activities across borders are characterised by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges in parallel.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Shanghai Five <\/strong>emerged in <strong>1996 <\/strong>from a series of border demarcation and demilitarization talks between<strong> 4 former USSR republics and China.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan<\/strong> were members of the <strong>Shanghai Five.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>With the accession of <strong>Uzbekistan<\/strong> to the group in <strong>2001<\/strong>, the Shanghai Five was renamed the SCO.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Objective:<\/strong> To enhance regional cooperation for efforts to curb terrorism, separatism, and extremism in the Central Asian region.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Members: <\/strong>China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus and the four Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Observer status:<\/strong> Afghanistan and Mongolia.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Language:<\/strong> The SCO&#8217;s official languages are Russian and Chinese.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Structure: The supreme decision-making body<\/strong> of the SCO is the<strong> Council of Heads of States (CHS) <\/strong>which meets once a year.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Organization has 2 standing bodies<\/strong> \u2014 the Secretariat in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance for India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Regional Security:<\/strong> The SCO serves as a platform for addressing security concerns, including terrorism, separatism, and extremism, which are critical issues for India given its geographical and political context.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Economic Cooperation: <\/strong>The organization facilitates economic collaboration among member states, which enhance trade and investment opportunities for India, particularly with Central Asian countries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Geopolitical Influence:<\/strong> India&#8217;s membership in the SCO helps enhance its influence in Central Asia and counterbalances the presence of China and Pakistan in the region.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Central Asia:<\/strong> The <strong>SCO is especially important for India<\/strong> because its membership and focus emphasize <strong>Central Asia<\/strong>\u2014a region where <strong>India is keen to ramp up ties<\/strong> but faces an inherent constraint with its outreach.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In recent years, India has convened dialogues with Central Asian leaders to signal India\u2019s commitment to partnership\u2014and the visit by External Affairs Minister to Islamabad is to amplify that message.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>China-Pakistan Axis:<\/strong> The strong partnership between China and Pakistan within the SCO complicates India&#8217;s strategic positioning, as at times it limits India&#8217;s influence in regional security discussions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Geopolitical Tensions: <\/strong>Ongoing border disputes and geopolitical tensions with China and Pakistan spill over into SCO discussions, making it difficult for India to engage constructively.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Focus on Security over Economic Development: <\/strong>The SCO&#8217;s primary focus on security issues sometimes overshadow economic and developmental cooperation, which are crucial for India\u2019s interests in the region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India has to maintain a delicate balance as the dynamics of the SCO are changing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The External Affairs Minister\u2019s trip was intended to signal <strong>India\u2019s commitment to the SCO<\/strong>, not to strengthen ties with Pakistan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/jaishankar-sco-meet-in-pakistan-key-takeaways-9625055\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The heads of government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was attended by India, Pakistan, China, Russia and six other member countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31021,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020\/revisions\/31021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}