SCO great vehicle for India?

| | in Oped

The acrimonious G7 summit in Quebec, held contemporaneously with the Qingdao summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), has put the latter’s harmonious running in the spotlight. Hailed by many as a harbinger of an “East in Rising”, Chinese state media was quick to attribute the SCO’s successful conduct of its business to the “Shanghai Spirit” of mutual trust, equality, mutual benefit, consultations, respect for cultural diversity and aspiration for common development. But will the SCO be the security panacea that it wants to become? Will it emerge as India’s gateway to the Central Asia? Will India and Pakistan use this forum to productively engage with each other? More generally, what does the SCO bring for India?

Emerging from the ashes of Shanghai Five, the SCO is an eight-member regional organisation in addition to four observer states and six dialogue partners, with India and Pakistan being the newest members admitted in 2017. The presence of the economic and political mastodons of Eurasia in the same forum, including two permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with the geo-strategically important countries of Central and South Asia, makes the SCO a regional forum with far-reaching potentialities in issues of security, terrorism, extremism, connectivity, people-to-people exchanges, cooperation in environmental protection and development.

Security

The SCO has consistently focussed on the “three evil forces” of terrorism, extremism and separatism. The adoption of the Qingdao Declaration by the SCO member states’ leaders calls for prioritising the implementation of the Cooperation Programme to fight terrorism, separatism and extremism for 2019-2021 and speeding up the coming into effect the SCO Convention on Countering Extremism. The SCO Anti-Drug Strategy for 2018-2023 and the Programme of Action for its implementation, as well as the Concept for the Prevention of the Abuse of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances adopted at the Qingdao summit, reveal security to be a priority of the SCO. The Joint Appeal to Youth, another commendable initiative, plans to organise comprehensive educational work to prevent radicalisation of the youth.

Participation in bilateral and multilateral anti-terror drills, including the Peace Mission anti-terrorism military exercise, will help the SCO member states to work with each other in securing the region. In December 2017, the first such drill attended by India under the aegis of the SCO framework was held in China’s Xiamen to improve coordination and curb the use of the internet for terrorist, separatist and extremist purposes.

India is cognisant of the centrality of a stable Afghanistan to all members of the SCO. That India intends to use the SCO as a forum to multilaterally deal with issues surrounding the Afghan peace process through interactions among the highest leadership of member countries was underscored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at Qingdao wherein he cited Afghanistan as an unfortunate example of the effects of extremism and terrorism. Praising the “brave steps taken by President Ghani” he hoped that these steps will be respected by all states in the region.

Economic development

The SCO stands firmly against trade protectionism and condemns backlash against globalisation. The joint statement of the SCO member states for streamlining trade procedures underscores the attempts being made for trade facilitation and investment along with enhancing industrial cooperation.

During President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi’s bilateral talks in Qingdao, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding export of non-Basmati rice, earlier denied access on phytosanitary grounds, was signed. The MoU assumes significance in the light of India’s widening trade deficit (which stood at $51 billion in 2016-2017) with China, one of the world’s biggest rice markets.

Another MoU signed during the event concerned the sharing of hydrological information on Brahmaputra, a practice stopped in the aftermath of the 73-day Doklam stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops last year. The agreement enables China to provide hydrological data in flood season from May 15 to October 15 every year. It also enables the Chinese side to provide hydrological data if water level exceeds mutually agreed level during non-flood season.

Connectivity

India was the only SCO member that did not endorse China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at Qingdao. Prime Minister Modi asserted that any mega connectivity project must respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries. Launched with an aim to link Asia and Europe with a network of land and sea routes, the BRI holds a lot of potential in unlocking a plethora of economic benefits in the region. However, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is part of the BRI, passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) thereby violating Indian sovereignty.

The centrality of improving India’s connectivity with landlocked Central Asia is underscored by India’s decision to join the Agreement on the Establishment of an International Transport and Transit Corridor (Ashgabat Agreement), International North South Transport Corridor and development of the Chabahar Port. The geo-strategically important and resource rich Central Asian Republics are the focus of India’s Connect Central Asia Policy. India must leverage the SCO to achieve its goals and productively engage with the SCO in implementing connectivity schemes like the Intergovernmental Agreement on International Road Transportation Facilitation, in addition to resolving the BRI dilemma.

Uniting the people

In order to make solid progress on the road of building a community of shared future, the importance of leveraging historical and cultural ties between the peoples of the region cannot be overstated. Productive cooperation among the SCO member states in culture, education, science, technology, healthcare, tourism, crafts, environmental protection, youth exchanges, media and sport will pave the way for mutual enrichment and closer relations among people.

The Doklam stand-off highlighted the role of media in rousing detrimental jingoistic sentiments. In this light, encouraging media cooperation through the SCO Media Forum held in Beijing in June 2018 is a welcome move. Focusing on tourism, Prime Minister Modi highlighted that tourists from the SCO countries coming to India account for just six per cent of foreign tourists. To improve this statistic, India plans to organise a SCO food festival and a Buddhist festival.

The SCO’s ability of turning latent potential into reality will have far-reaching consequences for the region that will be closely watched by the world. While the lack of coherence among its members can reduce it to Ozymandias’ stature till only words remain, a concerted effort by members can ensure the SCO’s success as a forum that its member states utilise to settle issues multilaterally through a consensus-based approach. Prime Minister Modi’s enumeration of SECURE as Security of citizens, Economic development for all, Connecting the region, Uniting the people, Respect for sovereignty and integrity and Environment protection should be the SCO’s guiding spirit.

(The writer is an independent analyst and scholar at School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University)