Thaindian News

By Sarwar Kashani
New Delhi, June 9 (IANS) As the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a grouping involving Eurasian countries, begins its 10th annual summit in Tashkent, Russian ambassador Alexander M. Kadakin says India “has a right to be the permanent member” of the regional intergovernmental grouping but Pakistan does not.

“Our (Russian) position has all along been that we want India as a full-fledged member of the SCO,” Kadakin told IANS in an interview a day ahead of the two-day SCO summit beginning Thursday.

The Tashkent summit is likely to clear the rules for expanding the grouping formed in Shanghai June 15, 2001,which has Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as its

members.

The Russian envoy said the criteria, as of now, “has not been worked out. But we believe India meets all the requirements to be the member.”

Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna will represent India at the Tashkent summit. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia currently have observer status at the SCO. But in recent times, New Delhi has shown interest in joining the SCO.

Asked if Pakistan’s membership request would also be considered alongside India, the Russian envoy said the two countries could

not be compared for the purpose.

“India and Pakistan are different in this regard. There is a certain limited criteria for the membership. If you ask me

about India, I would say it falls in the ‘yes’ category,” said Kadakin.

He said he was not sure of the criteria for the permanent membership to the bloc: “Let them (the bloc members) sit

and work it out. As and when India’s membership issue comes up, we will welcome India into the bloc.”

The foreign ministers of the SCO countries met last week and finalised procedures for admitting new members. The draft is likely to be adopted in the two-day summit.

India warmed up to the grouping last year when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the summit in Russia on an

invitation.

Anti-terrorism being an important focus of the SCO, India says its participation in the grouping would enable it to counter the rise of extremist groups by cooperating with like-minded countries in the Central Asian region.

The SCO has a Regional Counter Terrorism Center in Tashkent and India is also keen that Afghanistan too joins the

bloc.

Kadakin said situation in Afghanistan will be “the focus” of the Tashkent summit. He said the grouping was keen to have

a more stable Afghanistan, which is important to regional security.

(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at s.kashani@ians.in)