B.RAMAN
India, like Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, is
presently an observer of the Shanghai Co-operation
Organisation (SCO), which has completed 10 years. Like Pakistan and Iran, it
has sought full membership of an organisation over which China is seeking to
establish its hegemony. The request for full membership was reiterated by Shri
S.M.Krishna, our Minister For External Affairs, during his visit to Beijing
earlier this week to represent India in the SCO summit held on June 6 and
7,2012.
2. While carefully orchestrating the further
evolution of the organisation in a direction that would facilitate the pursuit
of Chinese interests in Afghanistan and the Central Asian
Republics---particularly a greater role for China in the economic
reconstruction and security modernisation of Afghanistan after the thinning-out
of the US-led NATO presence post-2014—China has sought to maintain a certain
lack of transparency regarding the security dimensions of the SCO.
3. While seeking to remove any impression that
China is trying to develop the SCO into a NATO-like military alliance in the
Afghanistan-Central Asian region to counter the US presence and interests in
the region, the Chinese have been projecting it as a co-operative security
mechanism to meet internal security threats to the member-countries from global
and regional non-State actors.
4. Among such non-State actors targeted by them
through this co-operative mechanism, they have given prominence to the Islamic
Movement of Eastern Turkestan, an Uighur separatist organisation based in the
Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and active in the
Xinjiang province of China. This mechanism also targets Al Qaeda and its
associates active in this region.
5. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan, which are among the members of the SCO, also look upto this
mechanism to help them in countering indigenous extremist elements posing a
threat to their internal security. Only Russia has not so far shown any
interest in seeking the help of this mechanism for dealing with the internal
security problems in Chechnya.
6. While China has been trying to use the security
mechanism of the SCO for dealing with organisations which are perceived as
posing a threat to China and the Central Asian Republics, it does not look
upon anti-India organisations such as
the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), the Harkt-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
(HUJI) and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), which are sponsored by Pakistan’s
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), or the Afghan Taliban or the Haqqani
Network, which are the allies of Pakistan, as coming within the ambit of the SCO
security mechanism.
7. Because of the lack of transparency carefully
maintained by China without being challenged by Russia and the Central Asian
member-States of the SCO, one does not know the details of this security
mechanism. All one could gather is that this mechanism covers arrangements for
intelligence sharing, joint anti-terrorism exercises and plans for raising a
joint rapid reaction force to deal with emergencies caused by terrorist organisations.
8.The State-owned Xinhua news agency of China
reported on June 7, 2012, that the SCO
summit recommitted itself to closer security ties by adopting a 2013-15
anti-terrorism plan and establishing a swift response mechanism. It said that
the mechanism would allow SCO members to
request the help of other members to handle domestic emergencies.
9.According to the Agency, President Hu Jintao told
the summit that "we should establish and improve a system of security
cooperation". Hu said the SCO aimed
to become a "fortress of regional security and stability and a driving
force of regional economic development".
10.In an interview to Xinhua, Kazakhstan's Foreign
Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov said that the SCO members had in the past 11 years
developed a legal norm and a coordination mechanism, which make it possible for
them to carry out anti-terror joint military exercises and to provide security
for major political or sports events in member countries. He suggested that
the SCO should set up a police unit within the SCO framework to crack
down on Internet-based crimes.
11.This year’s joint military exercise of the
member-countries coinciding with the summit, titled "Peace Mission 2012" , was held in the "Chorukh-Dayron" area in the Khujand city of Tajikistan. About 2000 members
of the security forces of the member-countries participated of whom 369 came
from China. Beijing sent two units---one of army aviation and the other of the
infantry. The army aviation unit took off from the Kashi Airport of Xinjiang on June 5 and arrived at the exercise area by
way of Kyrgyzstan the same day. The
ground troops left Atushi in Xinjiang on June 3 and arrived at the exercise area on
June 5 via Kyrgyzstan by road.
12.Briefing the media on the exercise on May 31,Yang
Yujun, spokesman of the Chinese Ministry
of National Defense, , stated that the joint military exercises in the past had
greatly enhanced the cohesion of the SCO. He added that defense
and security cooperation was one of the important cooperative programs within
the SCO. Through the defense and security cooperation, the mutual trust in
military security among the SCO member countries had been greatly strengthened,
and their ability to jointly cope with new challenges and new threats had been
significantly enhanced. The scale of the military exercises had developed from the
initial company-level tactical exercise to this year’s combat exercise of all
services and arms which integrated strategic consultation, battle preparation
and battle execution. The exercises location had been expanded from the border
port, border area and coastal area to strategic depth and hinterland, he added.
13.While seeking full membership of the SCO, India
should carefully consider to what extent it would be advisable for it to
participate in an internal security co-operation mechanism of which China and
Pakistan would be members. There would be very little compatibility between our
internal security concerns and interests and those of China and Pakistan and it
could be counter-productive for us to participate in this mechanism. Moreover,
our internal security strategy is based
on the principle that except in border areas, the police should be the weapon
of first resort and the Army the weapon of last resort. The SCO mechanism
operates on the principle that the Army should be the weapon of first resort
with the police playing only a supportive role.
14.The internal security co-operation mechanism of
the SCO is now proposed to be extended
to the area of cyber security. The main threats to our cyber security will
arise from China. It will not be in our interest to participate in any
connectivity and inter-operability mechanism relating to cyber security with
China.
15.These issues have to be carefully examined
before we decide on the extent of our participation in the SCO internal
security mechanism which is now dominated by China. ( 10-6-12)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China
Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
