Critically examine the aims and objectives of SCO. What importance does it hold for India?

SCO: aims and objectives

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (2001) has grown from the Shanghai Five into a ten-member Eurasian grouping covering roughly 40 per cent of humanity, with India and Pakistan joining in 2017, Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024. Its charter aims at mutual trust among members, joint action against the 'three evils' of terrorism, separatism and extremism through the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), economic and connectivity cooperation, and a multipolar regional order.

Critical examination

• Security delivery is selective: RATS enables intelligence-sharing, yet the grouping has never censured Pakistan-linked cross-border terrorism; India declined to sign the 2025 defence ministers' communiqué over its treatment of terrorism.
• China-centric drift: repeated endorsements of the Belt and Road Initiative — which India rejects on sovereignty grounds because CPEC crosses Pakistan-occupied Kashmir — make the SCO partly a vehicle for Chinese influence.
• Thin economic content: unlike the EU or ASEAN, the SCO has no development bank or free-trade architecture, and intra-bloc trade remains modest.
• Anti-Western optics sit uneasily with India's simultaneous engagement in the Quad, I2U2 and Western partnerships.

Importance for India

• Gateway to Central Asia's energy and minerals, reinforcing Chabahar and INSTC connectivity that bypasses Pakistan.
• The only regional platform where India engages China, Russia and Pakistan together — useful during border tensions and for consultations on Afghanistan.
• Counterterrorism inputs via RATS and joint exercises; India's 2023 chairmanship projected themes like startups, traditional medicine and digital public infrastructure.
• Anchors strategic autonomy by balancing India's western partnerships with a Eurasian presence.

Conclusion

The SCO's objectives are sound but unevenly realised. For India, the grouping is less about shared ideology than about presence — staying at the Eurasian table while insisting that its counterterrorism agenda is pursued without double standards.