SCO fights ‘anti-West dictators club’ tag
#GS-02 International Relations
For Prelims
About Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO):
- Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organization for regional security.
- SCO was created in 2001 as a successor to Shanghai Five which was constituted by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
- After Uzbekistan joined the organization in 2001, the Shanghai Five was renamed as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
- India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017, Iran is joining the grouping in 2022 while Belarus has applied for membership.
- India is going to be the next Chair of the SCO, and will be hosting the summit in 2023.
For Mains
India’s concern:
- India believes that SCO is a venture for constructive cooperation and peace and stability in the world.
- However, there is a rising perception that the organisation is China’s counter to NATO and is perceived as Anti-American or Anti-West.
- There is also a perception that SCO promotes authoritarianism and is anti democratic.
- This creates problems for India since India is also a member of multiple multilateral organisations including the QUAD, I2U2 etc of which US is a key member.
- India is also trying to create Free Trade Agreements with UK and EU and those discussions could be adversely impacted by these rumours.
Why this image has been generated?
- A major reason for such a perception is that two of the major stakeholders in the grouping are China and Russia.
- Russia is perceived as a threat by the most of the European countries due to their ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
- China is perceived as anti-Capitalist by the US and is seen as a threat to its global superiority and has multiple areas of potential conflict such as Taiwan, the islands in the South China sea and China is also seen as threatening US’s economic power on a global stage.
- SCO is also seen as promoting authoritarianism since many of its member countries including China and Russia are seen as authoritarian nations while the latest prospective member, Belarus, has a leader who is called as the “Last Dictator of Europe.”
SOURCE: THE HINDU