Bilateral Breakers

Smruti Deshpande

The 23rd meeting of defence ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, an intergovernmental organisation, was chaired by India in New Delhi. The meeting held on 28 April 2023 was attended by the defence ministers of China, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. From Pakistan, the special advisor to the Prime Minister on defence, Malik Ahmed Khan, joined through video conference. Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif had been sent an invite for an in-person presence at the meeting. Belarus is an observer state whereas Iran participated as a full member of the SCO for the first time. In the case of China, defence minister Li Shangfu visited India for the first time since June 2020 when Indian and Chinese troops engaged in clashes.

Rajnath Singh in a one on one meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu

The agenda of this meeting was to discuss matters concerning regional peace and security, counter terrorism efforts within the SCO and an effective multilateralism. The theme of this year’s meeting was ‘Secure SCO’.

The SCO currently comprises nine-member states: China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Iran. As of today, the organisation has three observer states interested in full membership, they are Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia. There are six dialogue partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017. The organisation was founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001.

The institution is based on summit meetings of leaders of the member countries. There are inter-ministerial coordination committees. These countries coordinate on various levels, including the macro-economic level. Furthermore, they coordinate in energy, finance as well as the investment market. The countries also have a Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). The Organisation has two permanent bodies—the secretariat in Beijing (China) and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent. The SCO secretary-general and RATS executive committee director are appointed by the HSC for a period of three years. Russian and Chinese are the official working languages of the SCO.

The SCO also has a Business Council founded in 2006. It is a nongovernment entity that unites the highly authoritative business community representatives of the SCO member-states with an eye towards expanding economic cooperation, establishing direct relations and a dialogue between the business and financial communities and facilitating the practical promotion of multilateral projects.

The SCO Interbank Consortium (SCO IBC), established in 2005, provides funding and bank services for the investment projects sponsored by the governments of the SCO member-states. The SCO IBC Council meets ad hoc upon the consensus of all the parties at least once a year.

Since its inception in 2001, the SCO has mainly focused on regional security issues, its fight against regional terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism. To date, the SCO’s priorit