PM says SCO full membership will help India gain economic connectivity, counter-terror cooperation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday will leave for Kazakhstan capital of Astana to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit where South Asian rivals India and Pakistan are expected to be granted full membership of the Organisation, which acts as a political, economic and military bloc.
Briefing media, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said India will be benefitting in trade and other economic activities once it becomes a full member. Besides, it can participate in the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), manned by 30 professionals analysing key intelligence inputs on the movements of terror outfits, drug-trafficking, cyber security threats and public information in the region.
The structure, based in Tashkent, also arranges joint exercises of security personnel and military drills to combat terrorism. It will be interesting to see how under this Organisation, security personnel of India and Pakistan will participate in anti-terrorist exercises jointly in future. Joint Secretary, Eurasia, GV Srinivas said, India is joining SCO with an open mind for peace and stability in the region. Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness, promoting cooperation in politics, trade, economy, research, technology and culture and other areas are the main goals of SCO.
India and Pakistan signed the memorandum of obligations on June 24, 2016 at Tashkent, thereby starting the formal process of joining the SCO as full members. Srinivasan said at the briefing, that India has signed a memorandum which is essentially a process through which an aspirant country has to go through before becoming a member of the group. "So that process has been completed from our side — essentially entailing to a couple of agreements as per the calendar drawn by the memorandum of obligations — something which we have relayed to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation secretariat in Beijing. They have also confirmed that India has completed this process," he said.
Ambassador P Stobdan, also a senior fellow at Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), said India's participation in SCO's counter-terror exercises and military drills could be beneficial to the its armed forces. "Profiting in terms of energy security would be critical, but the idea of a SCO Energy Club will gain full meaning only if Iran joins the grouping eventually," he said. He said the membership would also help India to rope in one or more SCO countries, preferably Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, in its effort to project Chabahar as India's gateway to Eurasia.
Ahead of his departure, Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday said he looks forward to deepening India's association with the Organisation. "This will help us in economic connectivity and counter- terrorism cooperation, among other things," he said in his pre-departure statement.
Commenting on granting of full membership to India and Pakistan, Chinese media said their entry could help resolve bilateral differences though there are apprehensions that their hostility could affect the unity of the China-dominated Organisation.
"There is some concern that the hostility between India and Pakistan might affect the organisation's unity. However, the SCO will also become an ideal platform for members with disputes to solve their problems bilaterally based on the Shanghai Spirit," the Global Times said quoting Li Wei, an anti-terror expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
...& ANALYSIS
- There is a possibility of a bilateral meeting between Modi and Chinese Prez Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit
- The interesting aspect is Pakistan angle: on Indian forces, as part of SCO, participating in joint anti-terror ops with Pak forces in future.
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