NEW DELHI: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), marking its 25th anniversary, is entering a more consequential phase.
The Bishkek Declaration reflects an organisation seeking to move beyond its traditional security mandate towards connectivity, economic resilience, technology and wider Eurasian cooperation.
For India, that evolution presents a clear opportunity but also a test of whether New Delhi can move from participation to agenda-setting.
The declaration’s strongest immediate signal is on terrorism.
SCO members reaffirmed their commitment to combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, rejected “double standards” and approved regulations for a proposed Universal Centre for Countering Challenges and Threats to the Security of SCO Member States.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the summit to call for dismantling the entire ecosystem of terrorist financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens, and warned against states that use terrorism as an “instrument of policy”, a pointed message to Pakistan.
The larger opportunity lies in shaping the organisation’s emerging economic and technological agenda.
The declaration highlights transport corridors, multimodal connectivity, digital commerce, energy security, industrial cooperation, startups, national-currency settlements and resilient supply chains.
These are areas where India can press for tangible outcomes: interoperable digital systems, streamlined customs, logistics cooperation and greater access for Indian businesses to Eurasian markets.
Technology is an equally important frontier.
The SCO’s focus on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and information security gives India a chance to shape regional norms rather than simply adapt to them. Its experience with digital public infrastructure, fintech and scalable technology platforms gives New Delhi practical assets to bring to the table.
The security dimension will remain central, particularly cross-border terrorism, narcotics and transnational crime. Yet India should be realistic about the SCO’s limitations. Its members have sharply divergent strategic interests, making consensus easier to achieve than implementation. The grouping should therefore be judged increasingly by what it delivers, not by the breadth of its declarations.
For New Delhi, the most important shift should be geographical. With Central Asia gaining greater prominence within the SCO, India should make the region the centrepiece of its engagement, combining political outreach with connectivity, education, healthcare, energy, technology and cultural partnerships.
At 25, the SCO has considerable geopolitical weight. India should neither turn it into an arena for bloc politics nor allow others to define its agenda.
Its strategic objective should be sharper: use the SCO to shape a more connected, secure and multipolar Eurasia, while ensuring India is an active architect, not merely a participant, in the region’s emerging order.