India in the SCO

With India’s ties with China and Pakistan under strain, it is difficult for New Delhi to pursue whatever limited agenda it may have with the SCO.

India sees its SCO membership as a means to increase engagements with the Eurasian region. However, India’s participation has several limitations.

All eyes are on a series of critical meetings hosted by India in the lead up to the planned SCO Summit in July.

Pakistan’s choice of whether to attend the SCO summit in India will send signals to internal and external audiences on a number of levels.

From the January 2022 summit to the recent NSA meeting, India has ramped up its outreach to Central Asia this year.

Across the SCO there is conflict at various levels that complicates India's engagement, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to simmering Sino-Indian tensions.

The SCO Summit went virtual this year amid the pandemic, but the content of the meeting was the same as always: big talk, little action.

As Sino-India relations enter free-fall, New Delhi finds itself at the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Any benefits from the SCO are cancelled out by the presence of China and Pakistan.

At the next SCO summit in June, the matter of calming tensions between its newest member states, India and Pakistan, is paramount.

The SCO is not a platform for harmony or discord per se, rather it is what the members make of it.