Iran, Belarus to be Newest SCO Members
For Prelims
- Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO): It’s a Eurasian political, economic and military organization aiming to maintain peace, security and stability in the region.
- It is a successor organization to Shanghai Five, which was a mutual security agreement signed by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
- On 2001 these countries and Uzbekistan announced the formation of a new collective aimed at increasing the political and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.
- This resulted in the formation of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
- India and Pakistan joined the organization in 2017.
For Mains.
Significance
- The addition of Iran and Belarus can be seen as a move to change SCO into a counter for the US led alliance especially NATO.
Why it may not work
- However, India as a founding member of Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) is not likely to support a move which can be seen as targeting the US.
- The current Indo-China relationship is also not conducive to creating a cohesive alliance.
- While Indo-Russian relationship is still strong as it has always been, the lack of economic ties between the two is a cause for concern.
- Meanwhile China has been the largest trading partner for Russia for many years and it will remain the same for many more to come.
- With India moving closer to the West with the creation of organisations such as QUAD and I2U2, it is unlikely that SCO in its current format will ever take a hard stance against the West.
Why SCO is important?
- The geostrategic importance of the members of SCO cannot be overstated.
- Central Asia is a region rich in resources such as Crude oil and even Uranium.
- However, due to their continentality they cannot export sufficient quantities to the global market.
- Hence, if a SCO led connectivity project is created, all the countries in the region including India will be greatly benefiting.
Source The Hindu
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