{"id":241098,"date":"2023-05-05T20:24:15","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T14:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=241098"},"modified":"2023-05-05T20:24:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T14:54:15","slug":"as-russia-china-vie-for-upper-hand-what-sco-means-for-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/as-russia-china-vie-for-upper-hand-what-sco-means-for-india\/","title":{"rendered":"As Russia, China vie for upper hand, what SCO means for India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cAs Russia, China vie for upper hand, what SCO means for India\u201d <\/strong>published in The Indian Express <\/strong>on\u00a05th<\/sup> May 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 International Institutions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will meet Friday in Goa.<\/p>\n

About Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Click Here to Read<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The main work of the foreign ministers\u2019 meeting is to prepare for the upcoming meeting of the Heads of State Council, <\/strong>or the SCO summit, expected to be held in July.<\/p>\n

China and Russia dominate the SCO<\/strong>. Due to which, the SCO is criticized, and different views are often put up.<\/p>\n

What are the different views regarding SCO?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The West views<\/strong> the SCO as a club run by China and ally Russia where the two dominant powers are in competition with each other for influence.<\/p>\n

Moreover, four of the five Central Asian republics are members of SCO<\/strong>. Russia views<\/strong> these resource-rich republics, that were part of the erstwhile Soviet Union, as its strategic backyard.<\/p>\n

However, the influence of China in the Central Asian-5 (C5) countries has grown with the Belt and Road Initiative<\/strong> and Russia has not been able to stop growing Chinese footprint over the region.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Russia\u2019s economic influence in the central Asian region is still strong, due to its political, cultural and people-to-people connections.<\/p>\n

This power play in central Asia has its impact in the SCO and this is where Russia needs India.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is the presence of India in the SCO important for Russia?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Russia sees India\u2019s presence in the SCO as a potential countervailing force<\/strong> to Chinese dominance of Central Asia.<\/p>\n

It was Russia which pushed for India\u2019s membership in the group<\/strong>. Due to which, in 2015, India was admitted as an observer along with Iran and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the visit of the PM to the central Asian countries in 2015 and India becoming a member of the SCO in 2017 gave India a higher profile in Central Asia.<\/p>\n

In post-US Afghanistan<\/strong>, SCO has helped India stay involved in the regional discussion on Taliban rule. SCO has also helped India to improve its ties with Russia <\/strong>given the increasing tensions with China after the Doklam issue.<\/p>\n

What are the concerns with India membership in the SCO?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some experts view the Quad grouping as a counter to the influence that Russia and China seek to project through the SCO, and India\u2019s membership of both as a contradiction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, the Quad is India\u2019s diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific and the SCO represents its diplomacy in the Eurasian landmass<\/strong>. It can also be seen as an exercise of true multipolarity.<\/p>\n

Further, if the SCO is a bipolar China-Russia platform, it offers several multipolarities within itself as members have options to get the best deal for themselves.<\/p>\n

For instance,<\/strong> India was the only country that did not sign a joint statement calling for the strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention<\/strong> in last year\u2019s foreign ministers\u2019 meeting.<\/p>\n

What is the way ahead for India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

SCO is described as a \u201cdiplomatic battlefield\u201d. Hence, the challenge for India is to use both the SCO and the Quad for its own interests instead of getting trapped in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cAs Russia, China vie for upper hand, what SCO means for India\u201d published in The Indian Express on\u00a05th May 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 International Institutions Relevance: Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) News: The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will meet Friday in Goa.… Continue reading As Russia, China vie for upper hand, what SCO means for India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-241098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}