Introduction:

The Shanghai Spirit — the core value of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) — has played a significant role in safeguarding regional security and promoting regional development. The SCO’s undergirding values, which feature mutual trust, mutual respect, equality, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of shared development, was born together with the Shanghai Five mechanism, the precursor of the SCO. SCO’s main objective is working cooperatively against terrorism, separatism, and extremism.

Body:

The “Shanghai Spirit” is the SCO’s driving philosophy. It emphasises

• harmony
• working by consensus
• respect for other cultures
• non-interference in the internal affairs of others
• non-alignment

Strategic importance of SCO for India:

• India has challenges to address and opportunities to harvest in the SCO summit.
• Security:
  • India through RATS can improve its counterterrorism abilities by working toward intelligence sharing, law enforcement and developing best practices and technologies.
  • Through the SCO, India can also work on anti-drug trafficking and small arms proliferation.
  • Cooperation on common challenges of terrorism and radicalisation.
• Energy:
  • India being an energy deficient country with increasing demands for energy, SCO provides it with an opportunity to meet its energy requirements through regional diplomacy.
  • Talks on the construction of stalled pipelines like the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline; IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India) pipeline can get a much needed push through the SCO.
• Trade:
  • SCO provides direct access to Central Asia – overcoming the main hindrance in flourishing of trade between India and Central Asia.
  • SCO acts as an alternative route to Central Asia.
  • Economic Ties – Central Asian countries provide India with a market for its IT, tele-communications, banking, finance and pharmaceutical industries.
• Geopolitical:
  • Central Asia is a part of India’s Extended Neighbourhood – SCO provides India an opportunity to pursue the “Connect Central Asian Policy”.
  • Helps India fulfil its aspiration of playing an active role in its extended neighbourhood as well as checking the ever growing influence of China in Eurasia.
  • Platform for India to simultaneously engage with its traditional friend Russia as well as its rivals, China and Pakistan.
  • The SCO provides the only multilateral platform for India to deal in close proximity with Pakistan and Afghanistan
• Hydrology:
  • A MoU signed during the 2018 summit concerned the sharing of hydrological information on Brahmaputra
  • 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.
• Pakistan :
  • The summit provides an opportunity for the Indian and Pakistani leaders.
  • They could meet informally on the sidelines of a multilateral event.
  • The two sides are obliged to cooperate on issues of mutual interest without bringing in their bilateral disputes.
  • Signing off on joint counter-terrorism exercises will be a new form of engagement between the two militaries.
• China:
  • After the Wuhan meet, the SCO summit will provide another opportunity for cooperation.
• Russia:
  • Russia has been India’s staunchest supporter in the SCO.
  • It has lobbied hard with Beijing for years to ensure India’s entry into the grouping.
  • India is clear that its relationship with Moscow would not be impacted by the West’s approach towards it.
• Iran:
  • Iran is an observer state that has applied for full SCO membership.
  • India has a powerful strategic interest in Iran’s Chahbahar port.
  • The US administration is hostile to Iran.
  • But India has been seeking to signal to US, the alignment of interests in Chahbahar.

Way forward:

• Joint commitment, respect for human rights and the rule of law, will build and strengthen the cooperation needed to respond to global challenges.
• To ensure fair globalisation, nations must have the necessary domestic resources and capacities to steer their economies and development agendas.
• Openness and partnership between countries can make a critical contribution to strengthening security and bringing about prosperity.
• Connectivity in the SCO region must be given priority.
• Increasing awareness of our shared cultures can help boost tourism

Conclusion:

Thanks to the Shanghai Spirit, the SCO has become a paradigm of global and regional cooperation, and serves as a model of efficient cooperation by paying equal attention simultaneously to economic development and security cooperation. SCO is a potential platform to advance India’s Connect Central Asia policy. Thus, India must make use of the platform to secure its interests vis-à-vis the challenging neighbours China and Pakistan.