G20 and SCO

Context: India is presiding over a year-long G-20, and leadership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

G20:

• The G20 is an informal group:19 countries and the European Union, with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• The G20 Presidency rotates annually: according to a system that ensures a regional balance over time.
• For the selection of the presidency: 19 countries are divided into 5 groups, each having no more than 4 countries.
• The presidency rotates between each group.
• Every year the G20 selects a country from another group to be president.
• India is in Group 2 which also has Russia, South Africa, and Turkey.
• The G20 does not have a permanent secretariat or Headquarters.

• SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organization.
• It’s a Eurasian political, economic and military organization aiming to maintain peace, security and stability in the region.
• India and Pakistan became members in 2017.

Objectives:

Challenges associated with G20:

• Global peace: everything points to a further deterioration in the geo-political climate, and to a distinct possibility of impending conflict.
• Priorities listed by India as signifying its presidency, viz., climate change, clean energy, sustainable developmental programmes and reform of multilateral institutions
• They are likely to take a back seat, given the deteriorating global situation.

• The hopes of reaping a rich dividend from the summitry may be misplaced.
• The importance of the G-20 appears to be declining in today’s world.
• The SCO seems to have somewhat greater traction.
• Distrust between the two camps led by the United States and China/Russia,
• It leaves little scope for countries such as India — that have not declared their allegiance to either camp.

 Issues of China for India:

• Major diplomatic-cum-strategic offensive across Asia, especially West Asia.
• Display of its naval prowess in the seas around much of East and Southeast Asia
• Flexing of its military muscle in the Ladakh and Arunachal sectors of the Sino-Indian border.

 Recent meeting of the Defence Minister with his Chinese counterpart:

• Improvement in ties with China would depend on ‘peace on the border’.
• This will reduce room for maneuver on India’s part, at a time when China is launching several other regional initiatives to checkmate India in the Indian Ocean region.
• The China-Indian Ocean Region Forum participation by an overwhelming majority of Indian Ocean states.

China’s role and its implications on India:

• China is seeking to widen the arc of conflict with India.
• China is actively engaged in seeking new friends in India’s extended neighborhood, in a bid to limit India’s influence in this region.
• West Asia appears to be fast yielding to China’s muscular and diplomatic offensive.
• Notwithstanding India’s attempts to reach out to erstwhile friends such as Egypt: India seems to have been sidelined, given the major churn in West Asia, much of it on China’s initiative.
• The new China brokered Iran-Saudi Arabia entente is setting the stage for major diplomatic shifts across the region, marginalizing India and certain other nations.
• China’s ability to embark on hybrid warfare, including the adoption of cyber tactics, engage in the ‘politics of water’ by redirecting the Himalayan rivers.
• Adapting to modern conditions the tactics popularized by the Fifth Century BCE Chinese Strategist
• Sun Tzu, of ‘winning wars without fighting through avoiding the enemy’s strength and attacking his weaknesses’.

 India’s relations with Russia:

• They appear to be entering a prolonged phase of uncertainty.
• Russian ties are not necessarily anchored in defense cooperation
  • Russia has been a key factor in cementing their relations.
• India looks more to the West, specially the U.S., for state-of-the-art weaponry
  • The inevitability of the relationship with Russia can no longer be guaranteed.
• With the Russia-China strategic relationship getting stronger and both countries openly giving vent to their belief in the utility of such a relationship
  • The strains are inevitable in India-Russia relations.
• Russia’s unequivocal attack on the Quad during the SCO Defence Ministers meeting in New Delhi.
• Pacts involving Russia, such as the Tripartite Russia-India-China platform and BRICS, have lost much of their dynamism.
• The economic content of the bilateral relationship is limited, and for the present linked to trading in oil, imparting little dynamism to the relationship.

 Way Forward

• During its presidency of the two institutions, India may well be called upon to chart a course that balances the contradictory demands of the G-20 and the SCO — and even more so that of the Global South.
• Turmoil in India’s immediate neighborhood in South Asia, compounds India’s problems.

• The situation in Afghanistan appears to be steadily worsening.
• India has almost lost all traction with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
• Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to different degrees, represent ‘worst case’ scenarios.
• India is one of the few countries in the world which has managed to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant economic crisis without much damage, and is widely seen as a prospective global power.
• It has much to do before it attains this pinnacle.

• There are many obstacles that have to be overcome before India can achieve its predetermined goal.
• Notwithstanding its fortuitous position of helming both the G-20 and SCO simultaneously, India should not claim to have attained its goal.

Prelims Question for Practice

What is the theme of  India’s G20 Presidency?
a) In diversity there is beauty
b) Unity, interconnectedness, a global perspective
c) One Earth, one family, one future
d) We are all connected

Ans. c)

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