Joining SCO club to add to India’s heft in central Asia

NEW DELHI: India is set to become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at the Eurasian grouping’s summit being held in Kazakhstan later this week, a development that experts said will add to the country’s geostrategic heft.

Admission to the SCO as a member will pave the way for the country to expand its presence in resource-rich Central Asia and neighbourhood of China, experts said, along with boosting the Narendra Modi government’s efforts in the region to counter radicalisation and terrorism as well as strengthen ties with Afghanistan.

After Modi became the first Indian PM to visit all five Central Asian states in 2015, India moved fast to become a member of the SCO in order to boost its presence in the region which was part of the erstwhile Soviet Union. India has stepped up its engagement with Afghanistan, where it will take part in a reconciliation conference being convened by the Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul on Tuesday. On June 1, President Vladimir Putin announced during the Indo-Russian annual summit that India will be admitted to the SCO as a member.

A similar announcement was made in Beijing by the Chinese foreign ministry. While Putin made no mention of Pakistan, the Chinese government announced admission of its all-weather friend to the SCO along with India. SCO’s anti-terror charter was strengthened when representatives of special services of the member states approved a draft convention on combating extremism and terrorism at a meeting in Tashkent in March. India’s counter-terror initiatives are expected to get more teeth from this charter.