THE year 2023 is very special for India. Its rising international stature is evident from two separate positions it is holding this year. First is the presidency of the world’s most powerful economic group, G20, and the second is the presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The SCO is an organisation which not only covers about 60 per cent of Eurasia, i.e., Europe and Asia, but is also seen as a counterbalance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), led by the US.
Member countries of the SCO account for about 30 per cent of the global economy and 40 per cent of the world’s population. Of these, about 800 million are youth.
India became a full member of the SCO only six years back, in 2017. It is the third-largest country in SCO, after China and Russia. Joining the Organisation has benefited India because the challenges that it faces are also the challenges that are faced by SCO countries– terrorism, energy supplies, sustainability and the issue of migrants. With terrorism as its focus, the slogan that India has given to its SCO tenure is ‘Secure SCO’.
Ensuring secure future
This was the theme which was agreed upon by SCO DefenceMinisters at a recent meeting in New Delhi. All member countries had agreed that India, as the Chair, would lead from the front in this region to ensure a secure future for the world. A protocol expressing the collective desire to make the region secure, peaceful, and prosperous was also signed by the defence ministers of China, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan after the meeting.
India will host the next SCO Summit on July 3-4. The aim of the summit will be to devise ways to combat terrorism in all its forms and curb terror funding. In this context, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement is worth remembering, that for decades, terrorism has hurt India in various forms. Therefore, it is very important to eradicate it from the root. India’s concerns will also be reflected in all the documents prepared by the Organisation after the July summit.
Mutual understanding
Earlier, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping had met in Wuhan, there was no agenda. It was a meeting to increase mutual understanding between the two countries, but in the meeting that followed, efforts were made to resolve bilateral issues between the two countries. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed regarding the data on Brahmaputra water.
New thinking was also formed regarding the export of rice and other agricultural products. There were talks on increasing cooperation between the two countries in the fields of medicine and information technology. Even in recent meetings, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, spoke sternly to China and Pakistan on the current situation and put forward their concerns for regional peace.
Now the participants in the upcoming meetings will discuss and approve an action plan for the implementation of an agreement among SCO member countries on co-operation in providing assistance during emergency situations.
India has made it clear through its policies and tough stand that it takes lead in coming up with new ideas and does not bow down to pressure from other countries.
