Srinagar: China has said that the tension over Kashmir between nuclear armed neighbours, India and Pakistan, was the largest challenge to Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
“The inclusion of India and Pakistan will add to the political dimension of the SCO, whose members’ value systems, characteristics of national development and core concerns, will be more diversified,” an editorial in the Chinese state-run Global Times said on Thursday.
India and Pakistan are set to join the six-member grouping as full members.
The SCO is comprised of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as full members.
The editorial – official position of Chinese government – said the admission of India and Pakistan has created worry over whether their long-standing hostility would be brought to the SCO, instigating internal disputes.
While SCO can lay the foundations for solving divergences between the two, “it won’t be an easy job. However, the organisation must face such tests as it expands”, it said.
“How India’s participation in the SCO will influence the organisation’s internal leadership has been discussed a lot.
Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status in the SCO.
Its 2015 summit in Ufa in Russia has formally adopted a resolution which started the procedures to admit India and Pakistan into the SCO.
Both the countries signed a Memorandum of Obligations to join the organisation in last year’s summit in Tashkent.
Most of the discussion in the articles in the Global Times is framed by traditional thinking.
The SCO is not a place for leadership competition. Some Indian media should free itself from outdated views, and embrace new patterns of regional cooperation,” it said.
An article in the same daily said “if India and Pakistan are unable to realise mutual understanding on their disputes, including the Kashmir issue, the possibility of conflict remains high between both nations.”
“Under those circumstances, it would represent the largest challenge to the SCO, and China and Russia must make more diplomatic effort to alleviate and improve India-Pakistan relations,” he said.
Furthermore, the pressure from non-traditional security threats involving India and Pakistan will increase the difficulty in combating terrorism by the SCO.
“Although India and Pakistan’s admission as full members into the SCO will bring about convenience in information- sharing and mechanism advantages, ensuing pressure and difficulties in fighting against terrorism will also be increased,” it said.
“Since the signing of the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism in June 2001, SCO member states have strengthened the crackdown on the three forces, of terrorism, extremism and separatism,” it said.
The editorial came at a time when Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi exchanged pleasantries in Astana, Kazakhstan on Thursday evening ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit.
However, the duo did not talk much but later reportedly enquired about health of Sharif who underwent open heart surgery in London some time back.
Photo courtesy: Dawn.com
Modi also asked about Sharif’s mother and pother family members.
In a sudden stop over, Modi attended marriage ceremony at Sharif’s home in Lahore in 2015.
“However, it is only restricted to China, Russia, and member states of Central Asia. At present, anti-terrorism actions have been expanded to South Asia, especially in India and Pakistan where the situation is relatively grave. Their inclusion will present a major test to the present anti- terrorism mechanisms of the SCO,” it said “Finally, the inclusion of India and Pakistan into the SCO will examine the cohesiveness of the organisation…With the admission of more member states, problems began to be more visible,” it said.
“From a realistic point of view, the addition of new member states will inevitably bring more problems to the organisation. China and Russia have controlled the development of the SCO in the past, the admission of two major powers in South Asia will require increasing efforts on their parts to continue exerting influence over it,” it said.
Pakistan premier Mian Nawaz Sharif with president of China, Xi Jinping, in Beijing.
India and Pakistan are joining the six-member grouping at a time when borders in Jammu and Kashmir are witnessing flare up in ceasefire violations. Many people have been killed and several others injured when the Indian and Pakistani soldiers posted across the Line of Control in J&K open fire and resort to mortar shelling.
India has been accusing Pakistani army of “helping infiltrators to sneak in to J&K” while Pakistan has maintained that India, in order to “conceal its oppression over people of J&K, its forces violate 2003 ceasefire agreement”.
