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What happened?
India continues participating SCO despite China’s dominance, because it provides critical strategic advantages that India cannot afford to miss while balancing China’s influence, with accessing central Asia, energy resources and counter-terrorism cooperation. Prime minister Narendra Modi attended the 25th SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, which was his first in-person SCO appearance in 3 years and first China visit in 7 years. At the summit, India joined the SCO members to deepen AI cooperation through the Tianjin declaration over AI governance. however, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh walked away from the SCO Defense Minister’s Meeting joint deceleration because it ignored the 2025 Pahalgam massacre where 26 civilians were killed, and the summit equated Pakistan sponsored terrorism with the Baloch insurgency. Later the Tianjin Declaration did condemn Pahalgam attack, reflecting tensions between counter-terrorism cooperation and SCO’s Chins-Pakistan dynamics.
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Why it matters?
India’s ongoing SCO membership represents a strategic balance between engaging China’s geopolitical vehicle while also protecting its own national interests in Central Asia, energy security and counter-terrorism cooperation. 40% of the world population and one-third global economy operate under the SCO, yet China treats it as “a vehicle for expanding geopolitical and geoeconomic interests”, where India faces “conflicting interests and challenges”. India stands as the World’s largest democracy in an organization that is often called a “club of authoritarian governments”, lending legitimacy while attempting to counter Chinese dominance. At the 2025 summit, Prime Minister Modi introduced a new acronym “S-C-O” representing India’s three key pillars: S- Security, C-Connectivity and O-Opportunity, reshaping how India frames its SCO participation. At the Tianjin summit, SCO members agreed to create an SCO development bank and alternative payment system to reduce U.S. dollar dependence, thereby presenting India with complex choices about financial self-reliance versus a China led financial architecture.
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Background
The SCO is a successor to the Shanghai Five (1996), which was established by five countries including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan initiated to build border trust and counter regional instability. Initially focused on border security and regional stability in the member countries later, SCO was founded in 2001, evolved from the initial goals, to address terrorism, separatism, and extremism in the region. In June 2017, India and Pakistan joined as full members, while Iran and Belarus joined in July 2023 and 2024 respectively, expanding SCO’s geographic and political reach.
There are ten permanent members in the SCO, with territory holding 25% of global oil reserves, 50% of gas reserves and about 35% of coal reserves. India’s Connect Central Asia Policy with the SECURE acronym- Security, Economic development, Connectivity, Uniting people, Respect for sovereignty, Environmental protection, drives its formal integration with the Central Asia through the SCO. Russia views the SCO ideologically as counterpoise against Western domination, while China views it geoeconomically with Europe’s trade arteries as centerpiece. The 2025 Tianjin Summit marked itself as the largest gathering in the SCO’s history with extensive participation from leaders across Eurasia, chaired by Xi Jinping, representing 40% world population and one-third global economy.
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What are the implications?
Strategic benefits for India:
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Energy security: The SCO territory holds massive reserve that is critical for India’s requirement for energy and resources security that will boost SCO prosperity while gaining access.
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Central Asia Access: It enables India’s Connect Central Asia Policy with the Central Asia region having deep historic and cultural linkages.
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Connectivity: INSTC (international North-South Transport Corridor) creates an east-west corridor to Europe via land, providing global access for transport and trade.
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Counter-terrorism: SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure mechanism provides a multipronged approach towards terrorism, drug trafficking and small-arm trafficking.
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AI Cooperation: The Tianjin Declaration of 2025 enables collective AI governance. India emphasized “equal rights to develop and utilize AI”. It promotes intelligence and focuses on AI governance.
The SCO enables economic integration, energy and resource security, transport corridors, a counterpoise to Western domination, countering terrorism, and access to Central Asia.
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What next?
India will continue participating in the SCO despite the China’s dominance because the membership provides a critical access to the Central Asia’s energy reserves, the SCO-RATS mechanism enables counter-terrorism cooperation, and SCO is a platform to balance China’s influence using Russia as a counterweight. India’s strategic community believes that India still stands to gain more from being in SCO than being outside of it, as being excluded would only mean being cut out of China dominated Central Asia, where India needs energy access and counter-terrorism.
Prime Minister Modis’s new S-C-O and SECURE principles reshapes India’s participation from just being a passive member to active strategic agendas while maintaining independence from China’s Belt & Road Initiate. However, India faces a fundamental contradiction as China views SCO as vehicle for expanding geopolitical a geoeconomic interests to challenge U.S. supremacy, while India seeks SCO for multilateralism and inclusive world order without being a Chinese handmaiden. Key 2026-2027 tests includes whether SCO will adopt genuine counter-terrorism measures without double standards, whether SCO development back becomes Chinese dominated financial architecture and whether India can access Central Asian energy while resisting Chinese dominance in AI governance.