India to join pro-Russia grouping

New Delhi, Sept. 12: A key strategic grouping of China, Russia and Eurasian nations closer to Moscow than to the West opened its door today to include India as a full member in a signal of defiance to the US where Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads later this month.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that the US-led Nato views as a counterweight amended its rules at a summit of its presidents in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, to allow India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia to join as full members.

India also submitted an application for membership — a formality since the six-member SCO has unanimously decided to admit Delhi into the grouping, said a senior official who was involved in negotiations over the membership.

The SCO, started in Shanghai in 2001, currently counts China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as members. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia were till now observer states.

“We have till now participated in the SCO as an observer state,” foreign ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said. “But now, we have formally applied for full membership and believe we can contribute better as a full member.”

India had been seeking membership since 2005, when it joined as an observer state. While Russia and the Eurasian nations supported India’s candidature, China was opposed. That changed earlier this year, when Chinese President Xi Jinping told Modi in Brazil on the margins of a BRICS summit that Beijing would welcome greater Indian participation in the SCO.

For India, membership of the grouping will, among other things, open up access to Central Asian oil, natural gas and other resources, and to transportation routes SCO nations led by Russia and China are developing as counters to traditional, West-dominated trade corridors. India also wants to participate in the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure — a series of counter-terrorism exercises.

But India’s readiness to join the SCO will be viewed in Washington as a refusal by Modi to distance his government from Russian President Vladimir Putin, blamed by the US for the annexation of Crimea and the shooting down of a Malaysian plane in Ukraine.

American Congressmen have questioned the benefits of investing in relations with Delhi when it remains wedded to its traditional ties with Moscow.

“New Delhi has given Russia’s aggression in Crimea implicit approval and strongly opposed sanctions on Moscow, calling Moscow’s interests in Crimea legitimate,” Steve Chabot, the Republican chairman of a key foreign affairs panel of the US House of Representatives, told representatives of the Barack Obama administration in July.

“Can the US trust India to be a reliable partner on significant geopolitical challenges if, for example, we can’t get India’s support on this growing crisis?” Chabot asked.

India’s application to enter the SCO will be viewed as an answer.

인도가 sco의 정회원이 되었다는 소리?