2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION SUMMIT IN BISHKEK, KYRGYZ

For: Mains

Topic cover: SCO Summit – outcomes & highlights, SCO and India – advantages

News Flash

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day visit to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Highlights

To tackle the danger of terrorism, all humanitarian powers should come forward together.
Countries that provide encouragement, support, and finances to terrorism must be held accountable.
SCO to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
SCO member states to cooperate under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) against terrorism.
India is committed to developing solar energy to tackle climate change.
Pakistan needs to create an atmosphere “free of terrorism”
China and India offer each other chances for development and do not pose each other threats.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc. India and Pakistan were admitted to the grouping in 2017.

SCO has focused on regional non-traditional security, with counter-terrorism as a priority.
The fight against the “three evils” of terrorism, separatism, and extremism has become its mantra.

Grouping of the SCO

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the then security and economic architecture in the Eurasian region dissolved and new structures had to come up.

The original Shanghai Five were China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. The SCO was formed in 2001, with Uzbekistan included. It expanded in 2017 to include India and Pakistan.

SCO membership

While Central Asian countries and China were not in favour of expansion initially, the main supporter — of India’s entry in particular — was Russia.

Significance for India

India’s two objectives are counter-terrorism and connectivity. And these two are the SCO’s main “three evils”.
India wants access to intelligence and information from SCO’s counter-terrorism body, the Tashkent-based Regional Anti Terror Structure (RATS), and RATS provides access to non-Pakistan-centred counter-terrorism information there.
Connectivity is important for India’s Connect Central Asia policy.

Source: Indian Express

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