Pakistan's SCO Presidency: Islamabad Summit 2024

23rd summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was hosted by Islamabad, Pakistan which held Meetings of Council Heads of the Government (CHG) of all 10 member countries. Theme for this summit was “Regional security, economic cooperation, and combating terrorism”

Delegations from various member nations, headed by Prime Ministers of China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as the first Vice President of Iran and the External Affairs Minister of India were in attendance.

Interestingly, 4 major SCO member states, namely, India, Iran, China and Russia are at strategic odds with one another, i.e., there are stressed relations between

·      New Delhi & Beijing,

·      New Delhi & Islamabad,

·      Islamabad & Tehran, and

·      Moscow & Beijing.

Compounding to these tensions is India’s efforts to counterbalance China’s ambitions to transform the SCO into an Anti-Western Bloc, given the presence of Beijing, Moscow and Tehran as members.

SCO and Pakistan

Islamabad is striving to enhance its image as a responsible host for International Summits by ramping up security measures and ironically, the Pakistani Army had been deployed to ensure safety. Authorities have imposed lockdowns and curfew in the capital following a recent terrorist bombing near Karachi Airport that killed 2 Chinese nationals and another firing incident in Baluchistan killing many. There are also threats from the party protesters of the jailed former PM Imran Khan, which could disrupt law and order.

By hosting the SCO Summit, Islamabad aims to showcase a safe and secure Pakistan to the world, while also striving to achieve several key objectives, including:

·      To make bilateral progress with China to boost investments, and

·      To leverage its geographical locations to be used to link Russia and Central Asia to Indian Ocean by making it a regional transit hub.

India and SCO

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a valuable platform for India to connect with top leaders from member states, particularly the four major Central Asian Countries. This platform facilitates meaningful interactions among leaders, enabling constructive dialogue and cooperation.

For Instance, in August of 2017, during the peak of Doklam confrontation, PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping briefly discussed the Astana Consensus, which emphasized not allowing the differences to escalate into disputes. Later, in September 2020, following the Galwan incident, Indian and Chinese Defence and Foreign ministers met in Moscow on the sidelines of SCO meetings. Interactions like these allowed both sides to exchange views on sensitive issues and explore ways to progress.

India engages with the SCO with several key objectives:

·      First, India aims to collaborate with Central Asian nations like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which possesses abundant natural gas and oil resources. The focus of India is on enhancing connectivity and economic ties, utilizing the Chabahar Port in Iran to establish a multi-national link, circumventing Pakistan. Additionally, the INSTC project with Russia is also in the same direction.

·      Second, India intends to transform the SCO into a development-focused platform rather than one with anti-western agenda, as aspired by Beijing. Minister Jaishankar have iterated India’s stand to be “Non-West” and not “Anti-West”.

·      Third, to combat terrorism in the region; which comes out as a paradox considering the nation hosting the 25thsummit.  

During the summit, the MEA called for combatting terrorism, extremism and separatism to be the primary goal of SCO and urged the members to have “honest conversations” on such topics considering the SCO region represents 40% of global population. He added that SCO being firm and uncompromised to counter the “three evils” can lead to economic and industrial cooperation between the members.

On the sidelines of SCO, Minister Jaishankar met and the Prime Minister of Mongolia Mr. Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai held a meeting to strengthen their bilateral ties.

India - Pakistan

Relations between India and Pakistan have soured, especially after the Pulwama attack followed by air strike by India on Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Feb 2019. It further stressed post abrogation of Article 370 in the Kashmir valley on August 5, 2019, bifurcating the state into two union territories. In response, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with India.

For the SCO summit, PM Modi was invited by his Pakistan’s counterpart Shehbaz Sharif. However, PM Modi decided to depute Dr. S. Jaishankar to represent India making it the 1st visit by MEA to Islamabad in 9 years. The foreign Minister clearly stated that his only agenda attending the Summit and had ruled out the possibility of bilateral talks with Pakistan, not unless Islamabad stops supporting and funding terrorism.  

Indian MEA earlier stated “Victims of terrorism do not sit together with perpetrators of terrorism to discuss terrorism… Let’s be very, very clear on this… Pakistan’s credibility is depleting even faster than its forex reserves.”

During the Summit, no statements of incitements were made on Kashmir issue or cross-border terrorism by either Pakistan or India and were kept as “civil” as possible.

Conclusion

Whether or not Islamabad would achieve its aspirations via hosting the Summit is yet to unfold. However, when it comes to Bharat, PM Modi’s decision to send the senior minister is seen as a display of New Delhi's commitment to the SCO. The Indian delegation, led by Jaishankar, is set to actively engage in the CHG summit promoting PM Modi’s vision of SECURE (Security, Economic development, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and Environment protection) guided by its age old principle of Vasudev Kutumbakam (whole world is one family).