SCO Summit goes virtual in China de-coupling shadow
SCO Summit in Samarkand 2022 (File photo)
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, May 30: For months, it was being speculated if Chinese President Xi Jinping would travel to India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit amid persisting border tension since 2020 after the Galwan violent skirmish between the soldiers of the two countries. Now, all speculation has been put to rest, with India announcing that the SCO Summit would be held in the virtual mode, as had been the case with the BRICS Summit previously.
“India assumed the rotating Chairmanship of SCO at the Samarkand Summit on 16 September 2022. Under India’s first-ever Chairmanship, the 22nd Summit of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held in the virtual format on 4 July 2023, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a media statement on Tuesday.
India has invited all the SCO Member States — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — to attend the virtual summit. “Iran, Belarus and Mongolia have been invited as Observer States. As per SCO tradition, Turkmenistan has also been invited as the guest of the Chair. Heads of the two SCO Bodies – the Secretariat and the SCO RATS – will also be present. Further, Heads of six international and regional organizations have also been invited, viz. UN, ASEAN, CIS, CSTO, EAEU and CICA,” added the MEA in the statement.
However, the SCO Summit to be held in the virtual mode bears clear signs of persisting tension on the India-China border. India has on several occasions said that the bilateral relations with China are not normal as the border remains unstable.
China watchers have been waiting for the SCO Summit to pick up cues on the direction of the Sino-India relations. “If Xi comes to India for the SCO Summit in July and G20 Summit thereafter, then one may make conclusion that Beijing is making efforts to mend relations with India,” Shram Sharan, India’s former foreign secretary, had remarked a few months ago during an interaction with media at the Indian International Centre.
Now that Xi is not coming, by Sharan’s understanding, it may be interpreted that India and China relations remain frozen in the ice of the glaciers of the Ladakh valley where the military of the two countries had indulged in violent clash after several years, and the images were screened at the Chinese Communist Party Congress which re-elected Xi for the third term in the office.
It may also be noted that China-US relations have also nosedived and the two countries are yet to establish high level contacts after Nancy Pelosi stormed into Taiwan with her Congressional delegation to send Xi squirming. With India now being aligned in the Quad with Japan, Australia and the US, besides G7 Summit in Hiroshima, attended by Modi, sent out stern warning to Beijing, the SCO Summit going virtual appears holding cues to the direction of the geostrategic equations in the near future.
The MEA in the statement said that the theme of the SCO Summit is ‘Towards a SECURE SCO’. The SECURE acronym was coined by the Prime Minister at the 2018 SCO Summit and stands for Security; Economy and Trade; Connectivity; Unity; Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity; and Environment. “India has set up new pillars of cooperation under its Chairmanship – Startups and Innovation; Traditional Medicine; Digital Inclusion; Youth Empowerment; and Shared Buddhist Heritage. In addition, India has worked towards fostering greater people to people ties that celebrate the historical and civilizational bonds between our nations. These include the various socio-cultural events hosted by Varanasi under the framework of the first-ever SCO Cultural and Tourist Capital for 2022-23,” added the MEA in the statement.
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