• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign a joint communique of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) following the omission of the Pahalgam terror attack and not explicitly addressing India’s concerns over Pakistan-backed cross-border terrorism.

• Rajnath Singh led a high-level Indian delegation at the SCO Defence Ministers’ Meeting to be held at Qingdao, China on June 25 & 26. 

• The event was attended by the heads of defence agencies of SCO’s member states.

• During the meeting, the participants exchanged views on the current situation in global and regional security, as well as further ways to strengthen SCO cooperation in the defence sector.

• Rajnath Singh minister demanded inclusion of Pahalgam terror attack in the communique.

• The SCO operates under the framework of consensus and Pakistan’s approach resulted in the conclave ending without the joint communique.

• Later, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the SCO member nations could not reach a consensus on certain issues and hence the document could not be finalised.  

• India wanted concerns and terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country, and therefore the statement could not be adopted, he said.

What is the SCO?

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is an intergovernmental organisation founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001. It was founded by the presidents of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

• These countries, except for Uzbekistan, had been members of the Shanghai Five group, formed on April 26, 1996 with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions.

• The SCO Charter was signed during the St Petersburg heads of state meeting in June 2002 and entered into force on September 19, 2003. This is the fundamental statutory document which outlines the organisation’s goals and principles, as well as its structure and core activities.

• The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation. 

• The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations.

Members of SCO

• The SCO currently comprises ten member states (China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus). 

• Other observer states interested in acceding to full membership are Afghanistan and Mongolia. 

• There are 14 dialogue partners — Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Sri Lanka.

• India, Iran and Pakistan were admitted as observers at the 2005 summit. On June 9, 2017, at the historic summit in Astana, India and Pakistan officially joined the SCO as full-fledged members.

• In July 2023, Iran became a permanent member of the SCO at an India-hosted virtual summit of the grouping.

• The SCO has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat in Beijing and Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent. 

• The chairmanship of the SCO is by rotation for a year by the Member States.

The SCO’s main goals are:

• Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the Member States.

• Promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, economy, research, technology, culture, education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection and other areas.

• Making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region.

• Moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

India and the SCO

• India was made an observer at the July 2005 Astana Summit and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.

• India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

• India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.

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