India and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

[LETHALFORCE]

There will never be a military bloc developing out of the SCO ,USA will definetly see to that if USA feels one is developing trade with China will be cut in half overnight to stop any military bloc dreams.

 

[Rahul Singh]

putin is boss but medvedev has his own take on foreign policies and its interesting because both are not conflicting yet different
@qm
it aways starts out as economic but an organisation with russia and china involved would last if military strategic interest is not brought in
classic exampe why was india asked to withdraw from ayani in central asia? or us asked to vacate some airfields in kazak its because on bases on central asia are now under the the command of SCO , what has economy got to do with air-bases think about it

the entire pakistani foreign policy is centered around india if they want to join DCO its not because they need it its because they are designing to keep india at bay on various world forums

Absolutely right. Russia pressurising Indian to vacated KAZAK base has much to do with functions of SCO and interest of member nations. For securing her interests India will have play actively in this group in whatsoever manner she can. Otherwise PRCs strategic interests ridding on pakistani foreign policy will continue bringing harm on Indian side through moscow. Needless to say how ambitious V.Putin is ? People may take RD-93 issue as light and not related but to me it had much to say.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Absolutely right. Russia pressurising Indian to vacated KAZAK base has much to do with functions of SCO and interest of member nations. For securing her interests India will have play actively in this group in whatsoever manner she can. Otherwise PRCs strategic interests ridding on pakistani foreign policy will continue bringing harm on Indian side through moscow. Needless to say how ambitious V.Putin is ? People may take RD-93 issue as light and not related but to me it had much to say.

This maybe one reason India grew closer to USA during Bush's tenure, but I still don't think Russia has faith in being militarily allied with China?

 

[Rahul Singh]

BRIC is also starting as an economic block. Do you foresee it as Military block anytime soon?

Can you show me some articles supporting the fact that India withdrew from Ayani and Kazak airfields because of SCO influence?

BRIC is just a show-room group or whatever you may call it. I dare say it has got no relevance in present world. It can't influence and can't bring any strategic change.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

BRIC is not a group it is just a moniker given to 4 nations that are developing economically that are not considered first world nations or third world nations in the traditional sense.

 

[Rahul Singh]

This maybe one reason India grew closer to USA during Bush's tenure, but I still don't think Russia has faith in being militarily allied with China?

I do same. But Russian discomfort on Indo-US relations is world known. Putin is known for making hard decisions and using pressure tactics. So, i can't rule out the possibility.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

it is unlikely an pressure tactics are needed by Putin after MMS's recent trip to Russia we just got a great nuclear deal and they got a great defense deal, all goroshokov issues were resolved,russia is building 4 more reactors than originally planned and 10 year defense pact was signed involving many current and future joint projects and chandradayaan 2 will be exclusively India and Russia collaboration. Atleast 20-40 billion in deals were signed during the MMS trip to Russia.

 

[Rahul Singh]

it is unlikely an pressure tactics are needed by Putin after MMS's recent trip to Russia we just got a great nuclear deal and they got a great defense deal, all goroshokov issues were resolved,russia is building 4 more reactors than originally planned and 10 year defense pact was signed involving many current and future joint projects and chandradayaan 2 will be exclusively India and Russia collaboration. Atleast 20-40 billion in deals were signed during the MMS trip to Russia.

Points taken. But it is also a truth that Russia is not comfortable with ever strengthening Indo-US relations. Reasons are not something hard to pick out. You may disagree, but till today Russian arm industry and bureaucrats are living in pre cold war era, when huge orders from Indian armed forces were for granted. Toady anything which India buys from US or Israel is taken as a lose for Russia in Russia. And this annoys them, mainly Putin(the boss) who dreams to bring Russia in parallel with USA.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Points taken. But it is also a truth that Russia is not comfortable with ever strengthening Indo-US relations. Reasons are not something hard to pick out. You may disagree, but till today Russian arm industry and bureaucrats are living in pre cold war era, when huge orders from Indian armed forces were for granted. Toady anything which India buys from US or Israel is taken as a lose for Russia in Russia. And this annoys them, mainly Putin(the boss) who dreams to bring Russia in parallel with USA.

those cold war days are over but Russia still has a tight grip on Indian defense procurement the T-90's are a good example of that, the relations we have with Russia are much different than USA in the sense with Russia we have a partnership (also with Israel) in defense production with USA we will always be a buyer and seller relationship nothing more also USA will give the same stuff it sells to India to Pakistan for free so I don't see the relationship expanding beyond what happened during the Bush era, in fact I would say Obama has erased 95% of the good ties that Bush built.

 

[proud_hindustani]

If i was a political leader, I wouldn't be interested in buying American military toys / seeking for nuclear deals with U.S. We already have Russia and France with whom we can expand our civil nuclear programe. USA has lots of restrictions which creates limitation for India. US doesn't even give ToT the way Russia and France give.

I want Indo-Russia relation to last as long as the earth exist. A lose of Russian friend can be a big trouble to India and a boon for Pakistan.

 

[Dark Sorrow]

If i was a political leader, I wouldn't be interested in buying American military toys / seeking for nuclear deals with U.S. We already have Russia and France with whom we can expand our civil nuclear programe. USA has lots of restrictions which creates limitation for India. US doesn't even give ToT the way Russia and France give.

I want Indo-Russia relation to last as long as the earth exist. A lose of Russian friend can be a big trouble to India and a boon for Pakistan.

No hard feelings against you but that really makes you a bad political leader. Remember one thing business is done with emotions and not emotionally.
Also remember in international arena only our interset matters and nothing else and also there is no permant friend or enemy, their are just our intrest.

 

[ppgj]

Can you show me some articles supporting the fact that India withdrew from Ayani and Kazak airfields because of SCO influence?

there is lot of confusion about the base in ayni because of the sensitivity attached. however -

Meanwhile, as reported by Vesti.uz, the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan contested reports that Dushanbe is conducting negotiations with India about granting the latter rights to base its Air Force divisions in Tajikistan.

TAJIKISTAN: The Ayni Airport to House Russian Forces in 2008 | Washington ProFile - International News & Information Agency

India is likely to be evicted from its sole, albeit fledgling, overseas military facility at Ayni air base near Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe under pressure from Russia, which is concerned over New Delhi's burgeoning ties with Washington.

India Facing Eviction From Tajikistan Military Base? | India Defence

 

[ppgj]

SCO is more of an economic block than a military block like NATO. India shouldn't give a damn whether pakistan joins it or not.

economics is one of the items on agenda. there is no denying that SCO was born more as security block to fight terror post a'stan scenario.

Brief introduction to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation creation of which was proclaimed on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan. Its prototype is the Shanghai Five mechanism.
The main goals of the SCO are strengthening mutual confidence and good-neighbourly relations among the member countries; promoting effective cooperation in politics, trade and economy, science and technology, culture as well as education, energy, transportation, tourism, environmental protection and other fields; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region, moving towards the establishment of a new, democratic, just and rational political and economic international order.
Proceeding from the Spirit of Shanghai the SCO pursues its internal policy based on the principles of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equal rights, consultations, respect for the diversity of cultures and aspiration towards common development, its external policy is conducted in accordance with the principles of non-alignment, non-targeting anyone and openness.
The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the highest decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once every year to take decisions and give instructions on all important issues of SCO activity. The Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once every year to discuss a strategy for multilateral cooperation and priority directions within the Organisation’s framework, to solve some important and pressing issues of cooperation in economic and other areas as well as to adopt the Organisation’s annual budget. Besides sessions of the HSC and the HGC there are also mechanisms of meetings on the level of Speakers of Parliament, Secretaries of Security Councils, Foreign Ministers, Ministers of Defence, Emergency Relief, Economy, Transportation, Culture, Education, Healthcare, Heads of Law Enforcement Agencies, Supreme Courts and Courts of Arbitration, Prosecutors General. The Council of National Coordinators of SCO Member States (CNC) is in charge of coordinating interaction within the SCO framework. The Organisation has two permanent bodies – the Secretariat in Beijing and the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure in Tashkent. SCO Secretary-General and RCTS Executive Committee Director are appointed by the HSC for a period of three years. From 01 January 2007 these posts are held by Bolat K.Nurgaliev (Kazakhstan) and Myrzakan U.Subanov (Kyrgyzstan) respectively.
The SCO member states occupy a territory of around 30 million 189 thousand square kilometers, which makes up three fifths of the Eurasian continent, and have a population of 1.5 billion, which makes up a quarter of the planet’s population.

Welcome to SCO Website....

 

[ajtr]

India keen on joining Shanghai grouping

India keen on joining Shanghai grouping

Sandeep Dikshit
Membership will allow India to play greater role in the region
NEW DELHI: After being unenthusiastic to the idea of joining the six-country Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in its first term of governance, the United Progressive Alliance government now in its second term is now keen on joining the grouping. “We are interested in SCO membership. It is a very important organisation concerning the region,” sources in the government said.

The government had asked the missions in four central Asian countries, Russia and China to explore the nature of rule changes for joining the SCO that are under way. India would take a view on joining the SCO after the criteria are adopted, the sources said.

India's inclination comes amid the SCO's plan to take into its fold more countries from the near neighbourhood, including Pakistan and possibly Iran. The rules for enrolment are expected to be unveiled around the next SCO summit, scheduled for June in Tashkent.

Afghanistan issue

An entry into the SCO will allow India to play a greater role in the region, besides helping to narrow down the differences with its neighbours towards a solution in Afghanistan. In fact, Afghanistan will be one of the core issues at the SCO summit, with Uzbekistan likely to highlight the insufficient involvement of countries like Iran and India.

By joining the grouping, India will also have get an opportunity to interact with countries in the region that are interested in tackling the Iran issue.

A rethink on the SCO came about a year ago when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh headed the delegation to the summit in Yekaterinburg. This marked a departure from the past when India was represented once by a Foreign Minister, several times by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and once by Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan.

The Indian delegation to the Tashkent summit, likely to be led by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, will take stock of the deliberations on expanding the SCO.

New Delhi's earlier lack of enthusiasm for the SCO, it was officially explained, was due to the limited role of the observer countries. The organisation has addressed this problem by changing some of the norms to allow greater participation of observers at the Yekaterinburg summit.

At last year's Russia-India-China Foreign Ministers' meeting in Bangalore, both Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi urged their counterpart Mr. Krishna to take greater interest in the SCO, as India was crucial to stabilising the neighbourhood.

Founded in 1996 as Shanghai Five with Russia, China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the organisation was renamed SCO five years later, with Uzbekistan coming on board. India, Iran. Pakistan and Mongolia are observers.

 

[ajtr]

The Axis of Grudging Cooperation

The Axis of Grudging Cooperation​

India has tried to prod the U.S. into taking a more active role in shaping Asia's security architecture.
After meeting the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa at the Copenhagen climate conference in December, U.S. President Barack Obama hailed the deal struck on climate change: "Today we have made a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough." What he evidently failed to realize was that the summit exposed how flip flops in American foreign policy in Asia had moved India and China into an unexpected embrace at Copenhagen, and beyond.

President Obama appears to be intensely focused on developing a better relationship with China, at almost any cost. During his visit to Beijing in November, he virtually conceded the role of an external security guarantor in South Asia to his hosts. Special Representative Richard Holbrooke thereafter reportedly advised the Chinese to play a more proactive role in expanding their arms transfers to Pakistan. The Obama administration's interest in "reconciliation" with the Taliban and possibilities of a precipitate U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan leading to a return to Taliban control, raised concerns in India about the possibility of a U.S.-China-Pakistan nexus emerging in India's neighborhood.

These developments inevitably led New Delhi toward adopting a foreign-policy hedging strategy of "engaging with all powers but aligning with none." This tack will be complemented with greater emphasis on joining emerging powers like Brazil, Russia and South Africa for developing a more "multipolar" world order.

The Copenhagen summit represented a good start. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured a visibly concerned Premier Wen Jiabao that India would stand by China during the summit, together with partners like Brazil and South Africa. Premier Wen, in turn, assured Prime Minister Singh that the U.S.-Chinese joint declaration in November was "not directed against India."

These assurances were all the more remarkable given that they came amid a backdrop of mutual suspicion. Since early 2007, reporting in Chinese state-owned media about India had been consistently hostile. Chinese commentators warned Beijing would not hesitate to enforce its territorial claims on the Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh by "resorting to military action to thoroughly liberate the people there." China's criticism sharpened during a visit by the Dalai Lama to a sacred Buddhist shrine in Arunachal Pradesh at a time when President Obama had declined to receive the Dalai Lama.

Bilateral relations started to warm after Copenhagen. Hostile references to India in Chinese state-run media ended. The border spat calmed down. India is continuing to cooperate with China on climate change, the Doha Round of global trade talks and in the Group of 20. Indian President Pratibha Patil will embark on a state visit to China soon.

Yet India has to remain vigilant about warming relations with China. Beijing has become markedly more assertive abroad since President Obama assumed office. In May last year, China imposed a ban on fishing in the South China Sea, overruling Vietnamese protests. The state-owned China Offshore Oil Company announced in February that it had discovered a new deep-water gas field in the South China Sea and China dispatched patrol ships to assert its fishing rights in the waters around the Spratly Islands.

The Chinese military has acted similarly aggressively in the East China Sea, with the conduct of a military exercise and the commencement of oil and gas exploration in disputed waters, provoking protests from Japan. China has refused to join Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam as a member of the Mekong River Commission. Cambodia is particularly concerned about the lowering of water levels in the Mekong resulting from the construction of dams across the river in China.

India isn't immune to these sorts of threats. It was only after India provided China with satellite photographs that Beijing belatedly acknowledged that it was building a hydroelectric project on the shared Brahmaputra River and agreed to exchange data on water flows. India is raising two new infantry divisions to deploy along the Arunachal Pradesh-Tibet border, together with steps to improve communications and enhance air power along the entire Sino-Indian border. The Indian navy is set to acquire two new aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines in coming years—a clear response to China's build-up.

India has tried to prod the Obama administration into a more active role. New Delhi has recently had a detailed exchange of views on the Asia-Pacific region with the State Department's highest-ranking Asia official, Kurt Campbell, but much more needs to be done. While New Delhi welcomes cooperative and constructive relations between the U.S. and China, concerns in India are inevitable when the Sino-U.S. relationship is marked either by confrontation or collusion which undermines Indian interests.

Many Indians wonder if the Obama administration has any grand vision at all in shaping the emerging architecture for security and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. No one doubts that relations with the U.S. will remain a key feature of Indian foreign policy. But in the absence of mutual trust which characterized the relationship in the recent past, existing misgivings will not be put to rest merely by grand state banquets or glib talk about democracies being "natural partners."

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India, Pak may be inducted into Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...peration-Organisation/articleshow/5965443.cms

India, Pak may be inducted into Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

MOSCOW: India and Pakistan are likely to be inducted into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) while Iran may miss the bus as the country is already under UN sanctions for its nuclear programmes.

"The country aspiring to join SCO should not be under the UN Security Council sanctions," a Russian diplomatic source was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.

At their meeting in Tashkent the foreign ministers of the SCO, a regional security grouping, have approved draft procedures and criteria for the admission of new members to the regional grouping, which would be finalised at the SCO summit next month in Tashkent under the rotating presidency of Uzbekistan.

The Russia-China led SCO has closed its doors for Iran as it is under UN sanctions, ahead of its expansion to include India and Pakistan in the regional grouping.

"The document sets out the start of the process of forming a legal base for the expansion of the organisation," Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov announced in Tashkent.

Iran has been pushing hard to seek full membership of the organisation and in spite of a wave of opposition protests in Tehran over presidential poll outcome, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had flown to Yekaterinburg to attend the SCO summit, also attended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Iran is facing fresh bout of UN sanctions for its nuclear programme. Despite an initiative by Turkey and Brazil under which Iran has agreed to ship much of its low enriched uranium abroad in a nuclear fuel swap deal but the US said moves for toughened sanctions would still go ahead.

Currently India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia have an observer status in the SCO. Earlier at several occasions India and Pakistan have also voiced their willingness to join SCO, when it would adopt criteria and procedures for admission of new members of the grouping, which has began to play a significant role in combating terrorism, drug trafficking and cross-border organised crime.

"The procedure of admitting new members is of great importance for the SCO future. The adoption of this document at the Tashkent summit on June 10-11 will give an impulse to the formation of a mechanism of the organisation's expansion," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko underscored.

He said it is a unique floor for dialogue between the great Chinese, Indian, Russian and Central Asian civilisations and cultures which meet in the vast region.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article387262.ece

India keen on joining SCO

Membership will allow India to play greater role in the region

After being unenthusiastic to the idea of joining the six-country Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in its first term of governance, the United Progressive Alliance government now in its second term is now keen on joining the grouping. "We are interested in SCO membership. It is a very important organisation concerning the region," sources in the government said.

The government had asked the missions in four central Asian countries, Russia and China to explore the nature of rule changes for joining the SCO that are under way. India would take a view on joining the SCO after the criteria are adopted, the sources said.

India's inclination comes amid the SCO's plan to take into its fold more countries from the near neighbourhood, including Pakistan and possibly Iran. The rules for enrolment are expected to be unveiled around the next SCO summit, scheduled for June in Tashkent.

An entry into the SCO will allow India to play a greater role in the region, besides helping to narrow down the differences with its neighbours towards a solution in Afghanistan. In fact, Afghanistan will be one of the core issues at the SCO summit, with Uzbekistan likely to highlight the insufficient involvement of countries like Iran and India.

By joining the grouping, India will also have get an opportunity to interact with countries in the region that are interested in tackling the Iran issue.

A rethink on the SCO came about a year ago when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh headed the delegation to the summit in Yekaterinburg. This marked a departure from the past when India was represented once by a Foreign Minister, several times by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and once by Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan.

The Indian delegation to the Tashkent summit, likely to be led by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, will take stock of the deliberations on expanding the SCO.

New Delhi's earlier lack of enthusiasm to the SCO, it was officially explained, was due to the limited role of the observer countries. The organisation has addressed this problem by changing some of the norms to allow greater participation of observers at the Yekaterinburg summit.

At last year's Russia-India-China Foreign Ministers' meeting in Bangalore, both Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi urged their counterpart Mr. Krishna to take greater interest in the SCO, as India was crucial to stabilising the neighbourhood.

Founded in 1996 as Shanghai Five with Russia, China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the organisation was renamed SCO five years later, with Uzbekistan coming on board. India, Iran. Pakistan and Mongolia are observers.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100522/159113584.html

Shanghai Cooperation Organization starts work on expansion procedure

The foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have approved a project on the procedure for the adoption of new members, Uzbekistan's top diplomat said on Saturday.

"The document sets out the start of the process of forming a legal base for the expansion of the organization," Vladimir Norov said at a Tashkent meeting ahead of summit in June.

The SCO includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The organization was established in 2001 to help ensure security along the border between China and former Soviet republics. But later it transformed into a broader regional grouping that aims at promoting cooperation between its member states and regional security.

The minster released a statement after the meeting saying they intended to develop cooperation in the fight against "terrorism, separatism and extremism."

Norov also said that the ministers had expressed their "solidarity with the people of Kyrgyzstan in the current difficult situation."

The Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan has seen continued unrest between the provisional authorities and supporters of deposed president Kurmanbek Bakiyev ever since violent street protests in April forced Bakiyev to flee first the capital and then the country.

Bakiyev is currently in Belarus awaiting a ruling on an extradition request from the country's interim government.

TASHKENT, May 22 (RIA Novosti)

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India-keen-to-become-member-of-SCO/articleshow/5995619.cms

India keen to become member of SCO

NEW DELHI: With the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) all set to expand membership, India is keen to become a full-fledged member of the group. Shunning its past indifference to the group, India has shown a considerable shift in its position in the past one year or so vis-a-vis the SCO and it best manifested in PM Manmohan Singh himself attending the organisation's summit in June 2009 in Russia.

Sources said that India believes that SCO is essentially a security organisation which had a major role to play in Central Asia and Afghanistan. In a foreign ministers' meet last week in Tashkent, the SCO approved rules for allowing other countries to become members. These rules will come up for final approval in the upcoming SCO summit this month.

The SCO comprises China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as full-time members. India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia are associated with the organisation as observers. While India and Pakistan are expected to be inducted as members, Iran might lose out because of the UN sanctions owing to Tehran's nuclear programme.

In fact, Indian officials are now trying to dispel the notion that New Delhi earlier did not reach out to SCO under the influence of the Bush administration's initiative to position India as a counterweight to China. "Whatever the perception earlier, India believes that SCO has a major role to play in terms of regional security. Some people in the past have seen SCO as a challenge for NATO forces and India's so-called indifference to SCO in the past may have been seen in that light,'' said an official, adding that New Delhi is not unduly perturbed about how the US will look upon India's SCO membership.

The official said that SCO shared India's concerns over rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In any case, with the Obama administration making Pakistan more and more central to the Afghanistan issue, India has been trying to enlist support from Russia and Iran for dealing with the developing situation in Afghanistan.

"The procedure of admitting new members is of great importance for the SCO future. The adoption of this document at the Tashkent summit on June 10-11 will give an impulse to the formation of a mechanism of the organisation's expansion,'' Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said last week.

 

[ajtr]

India's Rise and the Promise of U.S.-Indian Partnership​