If a multilateral grouping that runs by consensus fails to find common ground, consequences follow. That is why the recent Defence Ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Qingdao, China, did not issue a joint outcome statement. India had sought explicit mention of terrorism in the document, especially cross-border terror, including a reference to the April Pahalgam terror attack, where tourists were killed after religious profiling. However, “one member country”, Pakistan, refused to yield. It instead sought to insert a paragraph on disturbances in Balochistan to needle India. And China, in its capacity as SCO chair, made little effort to sort out the matter. Since it was unacceptable that a bloc founded with the primary purpose of combating terrorism omitted a reference to it, visiting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refused to sign the outcome document. “When the main purpose of the organisation is to fight terrorism, and you are not allowing a reference to that, the outcome loses meaning,” external affairs minister S Jaishankar later said. The SCO Charter adopted in 2002—a year after China, Russia, and four Central Asian countries floated it—had resolved to make “mutual intraregional efforts to curb terrorism, separatism and extremism”. In 2017, India and Pakistan joined the grouping.
India needs to assess why it lacks clout in the 10-member grouping that China dominates, though its relationship with the latter is on the mend. Beijing’s cliche of a dance between the dragon and the elephant apart, China’s tango with its client state Pakistan is the most visible at the moment. Evolving consensus when the aggressor and the victim of terror have an equal say is tough if the latter does not have a strong counterweight. It is not without reason that India excluded SCO member states from the global outreach programme by multi-party delegations of parliament to explain its post-Pahalgam strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and the refusal to give in to nuclear blackmail.
India needs a balm for the Pakistan headache. It must engage with SCO but with calibrated expectations. While exposing the double standards of those who deny cross-border terror, India must also invest more in deterrence and diplomatic assertiveness. The message should go out that multilateral organisations not calling out all variants of terror disrespect their fundamental objectives.