India’s entry into security bloc expected to lessen Beijing’s dominance: analysts
Li Keqiang could face an unfamiliar set of challenges at this week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit with India and Pakistan as full members
India’s entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will erode China’s dominance in the regional economic and security bloc, analysts said, potentially posing new challenges for Premier Li Keqiang when he attends an SCO summit this week – the first to have India and Pakistan on hand as full-fledged members.
“China’s role will definitely be weakened with India joining the SCO since India did not fully support China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’,” said Li Lifan, a Central Asian affairs scholar from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
Moreover, India might “oppose Beijing’s other initiatives within the SCO framework if they hurt India’s interests”, Li said.
The SCO, seen by some as a counterweight to the US- and European-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, is a political and security organisation to coordinate counterterrorism efforts. Its other members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
When SCO representatives meet in the Russian city of Sochi on Thursday and Friday, it will be the first summit to include India and Pakistan as full members since they came on board in June.