Take the plunge

Take the plunge

Entry to SCO opens up opportunities for India to look North.
With India obtaining membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an important platform has opened up for New Delhi in an increasingly multipolar world. As a Eurasian political, economic and security organisation, SCO serves as a critical geopolitical pole focussed on central Asia and its neighbourhood. For India, SCO membership provides opportunities in three key areas. First, given that Pakistan too has been admitted as an SCO member, New Delhi could use the organisation to hold Islamabad accountable on the issue of terrorism. In fact, combating terrorism, extremism and separatism is a principal priority for SCO. And there's no denying that terrorism emanating from Pakistan poses the biggest threat to regional security today. The abduction and murder of two Chinese teachers in Balochistan demonstrates that the terror weapon cannot be finely honed for use against India alone. Pakistan and its patron China too will suffer; terrorism is not so much a zeroas a negative-sum game.
Both India and Pakistan will now be expected to conduct joint military exercises along with other SCO members under the Tashkent-based Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure. Such coordination between Indian and Pakistani militaries is welcome as it can open a direct channel of communication between New Delhi and Rawalpindi GHQ the real author of Pakistan's India policy . A future IndiaPakistan compact is only possible if the Pakistani military is on board. The second area of interest is India-China relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Astana, and emphasised the need to respect each other's core concerns. This comes at a time when ties between India and China have become tense over Beijing blocking New Delhi's membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group and stonewalling UN sanctions against Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azhar. With China using SCO to further its strategic interests in the region, India could leverage this to obtain Beijing's cooperation on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
Since Pakistan blocks India's connectivity with Afghanistan and central Asia, Beijing could help New Delhi on this score as well. In exchange for this as well as settling border disputes with India, China could obtain India's support for its `One Belt One Road' project of transnational connectivity. Lastly, SCO provides a good platform to boost India's ties with energy-rich central Asian nations. New Delhi should capitalise on this to shore up its energy security and open up land trading routes to Russia and Europe.