AIR Spotlight: SCO Foreign Ministers’ Meet

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on: SCO Foreign Ministers’ Meet.

Participants:

• Harsh V. Pant: Strategic Analyst
• Omvesh Upadhyaya: AIR Correspondent

Context – The Foreign Ministers of eight member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) are meeting in Goa on 4th and 5th May, 2023. This crucial meeting is setting the stage for the SCO Leaders’ Summit to be held in July 2023 in New Delhi. Indian EAM S. Jaishankar welcomed the Foreign Ministers of SCO.

Introduction–

• Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental organisation established in 2001. The SCO Charter was signed in 2002 and entered into force in 2003.
• The SCO membership includes Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan besides India. Apart from the member states, four observer countries interested in acceding to full membership include Belarus, Iran, Afghanistan and Mongolia. SCO has six Dialogue Partners – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
• India began its association with SCO as an Observer State in 2005 before becoming a member state in 2017.
• It is the world’s largest regional organisation in terms of geographic scope and population, covering approximately 60% of the area of Eurasia, 40% of the world population, and more than 30% of the global GDP.
• India as the Chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2023 will host the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on 4th & 5th May, 2023 in New Delhi.
• The theme of India’s Chairmanship of SCO in 2023 is ‘SECURE-SCO’ –  ‘S’ for security for citizens, ‘E’ for economic development, ‘C’ for connectivity in the region, ‘U’ for unity, ‘R’ for respect of sovereignty and integrity, and ‘E’ for environment protection.
• India attaches special importance to SCO in promoting multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interactions in the region. 
• The ongoing engagement with SCO has helped India promote its relations with the countries in the region with which India has shared civilizational linkages, and is considered India’s extended neighbourhood.

Significance of India’s Presidency-

The rotational presidency of the SCO was handed over to India in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in September 2022 and will hold the presidency of the grouping till 2023.

• Hosting the summit brings an opportunity for India to strengthen trade relations with Central Asian countries which are energy-rich nations. The SCO provides a convenient channel for its outreach to Central Asian countries.
• India’s ongoing engagement with SCO can be seen through the prism of reconnecting and re-energising ties with a region with which India has shared civilizational linkages, and is considered the country’s extended neighbourhood.
• India’s presidency will also help in neutralising centrifugal forces arising from religious extremism and terrorism in the region.

Key Objectives of the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Meet

India as the host of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting in Goa is expected to focus on countering terrorism, the situation of women and girls under the Taliban in Afghanistan, regional security, and radicalization.  The CFM meeting will set the stage for the July Summit scheduled to take place in New Delhi where the top leaders of the member states are expected to participate.

• For India, the northern territories are increasingly important because a lot of challenges that India has faced remain in the northern frontier. India’s focus always remains on extremism, terrorism and radicalisation emanating from Central Asia and challenging South-Asian stability. This can be managed by working together with the SCO member states and taking appropriate steps to counter such challenges. 
• Another focus area would be to ensure enhanced connectivity in the region and strengthen trade relations among the SCO member states.
• India would certainly like to share its experience in digital infrastructure and take it forward to Central Asian countries. With the adoption of technologies like e-commerce and digital payments, India has made substantial progress in its digital transformation in recent years. This change is a vital component of India’s economic growth policy since it offers a chance to boost productivity, efficiency, and innovation.  
• Also, the key focus at the meeting will include the state of multilateral cooperation, and the progress of admitting Iran & Belarus as full members of the grouping.

India seeks support to make English the 3rd Official Language of SCO

India is expected to again push for the use of ‘English’ as one of the main working languages of the SCO, which uses Mandarin and Russian as its official language.

• Russian and Mandarin are currently used as official and working languages in SCO. The group’s documents are also prepared in these two languages.
• Since becoming a full member of the SCO in 2017, India has been nudging the bloc to add ‘English’ as an official language of communication. The first such proposal was placed in 2020, necessitated by the inclusion of India and Pakistan as full members to a grouping that has had only Russian and Mandarin as the official and working languages of the bloc which was founded by Russia, China and four Central Asian nations where the Russian language is widely in use.

SCO Council of National Coordinators Meet-

The SCO Council of National Coordinators met from 29th April to 3rd May 2023 in Panaji chaired by India.

• The meeting’s agenda focused on preparation for the meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meet. The coordinators prepare the ground for the ministerial meeting.
• The parties reviewed and agreed on the main draft documents to be submitted for signature at the Ministerial Council meeting.

India’s G20 and SCO Presidency-

India formally assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1, 2022 and took over the rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on September 16, 2022. India’s presidencies of the SCO and G20 will strengthen the stability and security in Asia and the entire world. 

• Both G20 and SCO presidencies are important as they reflect India’s desire to play a leading role in the international platform and also allow India to put its own side of the story on a global stage.
• The world is looking at India with a great degree of expectation because India has shown the world that besides having multicultural and multi-ethnic diversity it has a stable polity and rapidly growing economy of the world.
• India is trying to play a very constructive role in the evolution of the global order.  India is a voice that can bring nations together rather than increase the polarisation that exists in the international arena.
• Both these presidencies give India an opportunity to shape the global agenda and is also viewed by many members of the international community that India’s leadership can lead the countries towards greater consensus and away from polarisation. 

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