PM Modi Upgrades SCO To A Major International Grouping Of Nations
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces
Russian President Putin and the Chinese President Xi Jinping both attended the 19th Heads of State Council Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on June 14.
However Worlds eyes were on the Indian PM Modi. In his speech, Modi clearly stated that prosperity will follow only when terrorism gets eradicated from the world stage. For this eradication SCO will be playing a big role.
Since its establishment in 2001, the SCO has been facilitating cooperation among the members in various fields. The organization now has total of 18 countries, eight as members, four as observer states and six as dialogue partners. Currently, SCO states account for about 25 percent of the global economy and 40 percent of world population.
In terms of both size and role, the organization encompasses multilateralism. There is mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, mutual consultations, respect for cultural diversity and a desire for common development among the grouping .
Till now the West had not taken this block very seriously. However with India joining in things have started looking differently. SCO’s achievements after new states joining in will have different connotations.
Differences in values and systems among members will lead to more understanding and resolution of contradictions within the group will lead to better solutions for the World problems.
The progress the SCO has made in recent years proves this point.
The Afghanistan situation is a highlight of SCO security cooperation. The meeting of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group at the level of deputy foreign minister held for three consecutive years will now take a different turn with India taking keener interest.
India, China and Russia need to resolve the Afghanistan problem together and not leave it to others . During this summit, a road map for further steps by the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group was signed. The road map is aimed at forging consensus, developing collaboration and contributing to peace and development in Afghanistan.
India and China are important stakeholders in the Afghan situation and for counter-terrorism. With the two nations within its fold, the SCO can carry out regional security cooperation with greater flexibility, so as to promote regional and global peace and development.
Since the establishment of the SCO, member states have made significant achievements in security cooperation both in traditional domains as well as non-traditional areas like counter-terrorism and anti-drug operations.
Even Pakistan has joined this group and with the help of SCO, it will be in a better position to eradicate terrorism from its soil. Hafeez Saeed and other international terrorists will have to be taken care of and in this China will have to play a major role. So that Pakistan is able to approach India with a clean slate for Minister level talks. Without Pakistan taking firm action against terrorism , India will not touch Pakistan even with a barge pole .Thus a helping hand by China will contribute to regional security and cooperation.
Security cooperation within the SCO among the three bigwigs India, Russia and China can help to build consensus with other World Powers too. Even USA will have no choice but acknowledge and cooperate with SCO.
Not only Asia but the entire world have a huge interest in such security cooperation. In fact, since India joining the SCO and participating in security cooperation, it has helped both the regional countries and even others to develop areas of interest and seek ways to fostering peace.
In the future, the SCO will continue to devote itself to multilateralism and promoting fairer and more reasonable international relations in politics, trade, economy and security.
