Amid India’s efforts to increase trade with Central Asia and the challenges posed by disruptions to maritime trade, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi told Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders on Tuesday that India supported all efforts to connect markets, facilitate trade, and open new avenues for development.
In his address at the SCO Summit, which concluded on Tuesday, the PM said the crisis in West Asia had demonstrated that a conflict in one region does not remain confined to that region. “Its impact is felt across the world, affecting energy security, maritime trade, and supply chains. The countries of the Global South bear the greatest brunt of such disruptions,” Modi said. Alluding to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, he said increasing connectivity must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries.
While a bilateral meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping could not take place on the margins of the Summit in Bishkek (capital of Kyrgyzstan), a video of the PM, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Xi shaking hands before the leaders’ photograph was the highlight of the day. It was also reminiscent of a similar video of the three at the last SCO Summit in China’s Tianjin in 2025. Both Putin and Xi are slated to be in New Delhi to attend the Brics Summit on September 12-13.
The SCO Summit concluded with the Bishkek Declaration, which reflected several of India’s concerns, especially on the issue of terrorism. The member states agreed that “double standards” in the fight against terrorism were unacceptable.
The SCO also acceded to a longstanding Indian demand by amending its charter to include English as an official and working language of the grouping. Until now, Russian and Chinese were the two official languages of the SCO. The leaders also welcomed the SCO Civilisation Dialogue Forum that India will host later this year.
The Bishkek Declaration opposed “unilateral coercive” sanctions, which negatively impact the global economy, expressed support for Iran’s sovereignty and called for diplomatic means to resolve the conflict.
It did not mention the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but covered other conflicts, including the war in West Asia, and opposed “double standards on human rights” and “interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states”. The member states said they supported an open, transparent, fair, inclusive, and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system.
With the Summit taking place amid US cautioning countries against doing trade with Iran, the SCO member countries stated that they would continue to “develop practical dialogue on strengthening financial cooperation within the SCO Interbank Consortium”. The member countries said they “support speeding up the issue of connecting an authorised bank designated” by Iran to the consortium’s work.
In his speech at the event, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said the SCO should create its own bank and export credit agency. On Monday, Modi told the Iranian leader that New Delhi wanted to strengthen relations “across diverse sectors” with Iran and expand and diversify the trade basket in the times to come.
Addressing a media briefing on Monday evening, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that, in the context of India-Iran trade, the PM was referring to new possibilities, wherever feasible, that the two sides should explore. However, private parties conducting the trade would need to factor in finance, insurance, transport, and other logistics.
Misri said New Delhi had said the US sanctions on Iran, and that five sectors had been impacted by these sanctions. “We are studying them,” Misri said, adding that the government’s effort was to make entities in India that might potentially be impacted by these sanctions aware of their existence and the possible implications.
In his speech, the PM stressed the need to dismantle the entire ecosystem of terrorist financing, recruitment, radicalization, and safe havens. “We must speak with one voice and make it clear that there can be no place for double standards on this serious issue. We must send a strong message to countries that use terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide safe haven and support to terrorists that terrorism can never be a strategic asset for anyone,” he said.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said 13 outcomes of the Summit reflected India’s position, including the approval of regulations for a “universal centre for countering challenges and threats to the security of SCO member states”. The centre is expected to strengthen cooperation among SCO members in tackling terrorism, extremism, organised crime and other transnational threats, and enable better coordination and information sharing, the MEA said in a post on X.
The MEA also listed statements on cooperation in energy conservation and energy efficiency, and on the development of energy systems. These provide scope for the exchange of technology, experience, and best practices, as well as cooperation in modernising and strengthening the resilience of energy systems, the MEA said.
