RISING TO THE OCCASION

India's SCO Presidency Faces Momentous Tests

- Narendra Kumar Arya

Introduction

India is going to host two major international organisations this year, namely the G-20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit. From a statistical perspective, the SCO encompasses a significant proportion of the global population, GDP, and land mass, amounting to nearly 40%, 20%, and 22%, respectively. The SCO's strategic importance extends beyond Asia to the entire Eurasian land mass. Recently, India hosted the SCO Defence Ministers' meeting in New Delhi on April 28, 2023. Furthermore, the foreign ministers of a dozen countries of the SCO met in the city-state of Goa on May 4 and 5. In addition, two crucial meetings have already taken place, and in July, the heads of state will gather in Delhi.

SCO and India's Security Concerns

In June 2016, India initiated the formal process of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as full members by signing a memorandum of obligations at Tashkent. The primary objectives of the SCO include fostering mutual trust and amicable relationships between member countries, and promoting effective cooperation in various fields. India's participation in SCO has the potential to empower the nation to address terrorism and security concerns effectively in alignment with the SCO's vision to act as an eastern alternative to NATO, and in fact, the SCO has an inherent counter-terrorism mechanism known as the SCO Regional AntiTerrorism Structure (RATS), which includes a graded structure to address terrorism-related issues, namely the RATS Council and the RATS Executive Council. The Joint AntiTerror Exercise (JATE) called "Manesar Anti-Terror 2022" multinational joint antiterrorism exercise was last year conducted under the aegis of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at the National Security Guard (NSG) Manesar Garrison.