Revision summary
The SCO is consensus-based, so India–China LAC tension and India–Pakistan terror disputes stall it. Russia–Ukraine and expansion add further strain among members. India mitigates by keeping channels, chairing practical 2023 cooperation, and putting counter-terrorism on the agenda. It will not treat Jammu and Kashmir as an SCO bilateral dispute. Full political settlement of LAC or Pakistan issues will not come from the SCO itself.
Model answer
Introduction
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a Eurasian security and connectivity forum whose members include India, China, Russia, Pakistan, and the Central Asian States. Bilateral conflict among members, especially on the Line of Actual Control and on India–Pakistan terror and Kashmir, has slowed consensus, which is the working method of the SCO.
Body
How conflict has affected the SCO
- The SCO runs on consensus; a clash between two members on the agenda can freeze joint statements, military exercises, or connectivity text.
- India–China relations after the 2020 Galwan clash and the continuing LAC standoff reduced trust inside a body that China helped to found.
- India–Pakistan disputes over cross-border terrorism, and India’s refusal to discuss Jammu and Kashmir as a bilateral SCO item, block the security-conversation the charter advertises.
- Russia’s war in Ukraine after 2022 split extra-regional partners and made energy and payment talk harder even when the SCO itself is not a party to that war.
- Expansion, including Iran’s membership track, adds more unresolved neighbourhoods to the same consensus table.
India’s role in mitigation
- India uses the SCO to keep a working channel with China and Russia without accepting a China-led security order, which is damage-limitation rather than full political settlement.
- As SCO Chair in 2022–23 India hosted the Council of Heads of State (the virtual 2023 summit) and pushed practical files: connectivity, start-ups, traditional medicine, and counter-narcotics, instead of a single security narrative.
- India has consistently placed United Nations-listed terrorist groups and the need for action against safe havens on the SCO agenda, which is mitigation by naming the security problem rather than by pretending harmony.
- India skipped some China-hosted SCO military events after 2020 when LAC conditions did not allow business as usual, showing that mitigation is not silence.
- India also balances the SCO with the Quad, I2U2, and bilateral Central Asian summits, so Eurasian engagement does not depend on one blocked forum.
Limits of that role
- India cannot adjudicate the LAC or Pakistan-sponsored terrorism inside an SCO statement that China or Pakistan will not sign.
- Mitigation is therefore issue-based cooperation, chair-year agenda-setting, and refusal to let the forum be used against Indian territorial integrity.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Member conflicts LAC and terror] --> S[SCO consensus freeze] I[India] --> H[2023 chair practical agenda] I --> T[Counter-terror naming] I --> B[Other minilaterals] H --> M[Mitigation not full settlement] T --> M
Conclusion
Conflict among members has slowed the SCO because the organisation needs consensus. India’s role is to keep the table open, to chair practical cooperation as it did in 2023, and to insist on counter-terrorism language, not to dissolve the LAC or India–Pakistan disputes inside the SCO.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Do you think that BIMSTEC is a parallel organisation like the SAARC ? What are the similarities and dissimilarities between the two ? How are Indian foreign policy objectives realized by forming this new organisation ?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q10). View answer →
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Can the SCO settle the LAC?
No. The LAC is a bilateral military and diplomatic issue. The SCO can at most keep a multilateral channel open.
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Did India leave the SCO after Galwan?
No. It stayed, skipped some military events, and used the 2023 chair to shift the agenda toward practical cooperation and terror language.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
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2022 · Q10 · GS II · 10 marks
Do you think that BIMSTEC is a parallel organisation like the SAARC ? What are the similarities and dissimilarities between the two ? How are Indian foreign policy objectives realized by forming this new organisation ? -
2021 · Q19 · GS II · 15 marks
Critically examine the aims and objectives of SCO. what importance does it hold for India. -
2020 · Q19 · GS II · 15 marks
'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)' is the transforming itself into a trade bloc from a military alliance, in present times - Discuss. -
2016 · Q19 · GS II · 12 marks
"Increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in India and growing interference in the internal affairs of member-states by Pakistan are not conducive for the future of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation)." Explain with suitable examples.
More from this topic
Q10 · UPSC Mains 2022 · GS II · 10 marks
Do you think that BIMSTEC is a parallel organisation like the SAARC ? What are the similarities and dissimilarities between the two ? How are Indian foreign policy objectives realized by forming this new organisation ?
Bilateral and Regional Groupings
SAARC is a South Asian organisation including Pakistan; BIMSTEC is a Bay of Bengal grouping including Myanmar and Thailand. They share five members and a development vocabulary. They differ in geography, in Pakistan’s presence, and in SAARC’s summit freeze after 2016. BIMSTEC is therefore not a duplicate SAARC; it is a different regional canvas. India uses BIMSTEC to join Neighbourhood First with Act East without a Pakistan veto. SAARC still exists on paper; BIMSTEC is the platform that currently works.
Q19 · UPSC Mains 2021 · GS II · 15 marks
Critically examine the aims and objectives of SCO. what importance does it hold for India.
Bilateral and Regional Groupings
SCO’s aims are regional security, the ‘three evils’, and economic-connectivity cooperation under a China–Russia-centred Eurasian tent. RATS is the concrete security limb; trade and a development-bank story have lagged BRI. Terror definitions split, especially India–Pakistan; consensus yields thin communiqués. For India, importance is Central Asia, strategic autonomy beside the Quad, and a limited China channel. Do not treat SCO as a court against Pakistan or as a settlement mechanism for the LAC.
Q19 · UPSC Mains 2020 · GS II · 15 marks
'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)' is the transforming itself into a trade bloc from a military alliance, in present times - Discuss.
Bilateral and Regional Groupings
Quad is India, Japan, Australia and the US in an Indo-Pacific diplomatic quadrilateral revived after 2017. It was not a NATO-like military alliance in 2020: no mutual-defence treaty, India’s autonomy intact. It was not becoming a trade bloc: no common tariff or Quad FTA. 2020 did widen the agenda to vaccines, health supply chains and infrastructure quality. The accurate description is a security minilateral taking on economic-security public goods.
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