India’s Trajectory in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO): Following the ‘SECURE’ Path

By : Madhumita Hazarika Bhagat

Page No: 186-202

Abstract
India joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a member in 2017, after years of deliberation while maintaining Observer status. The growth of the SCO from a border dispute resolving mechanism, formed in 1996 as the ‘Shanghai Five’, to a consequential and expanding geo-strategic organisation has to be analysed in the evolving global scenario. For India, the SCO presents both a platform of strategic opportunities and a space of complex geopolitical contestations. India’s strategic posture within the SCO has undergone a significant transformation since its entry as a full member in 2017. No longer content with passive participation, India has adopted a more assertive and principled role in shaping the organisation’s agenda. The journey of India in SCO, following the ‘SECURE’ vision and, thereafter, the process of integration and the driving the agenda is the mainstay of this essay.

Author
Ambassador (Retd.) Madhumita Hazarika Bhagat was India’s first National Coordinator for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) when India joined the SCO as a full Member State, she helmed the newly established SCO Division, in the Ministry of External Affairs, from 2017 to 2019. She has served as High Commissioner of India in the Republic of Cyprus and as Ambassador of India to Turkmenistan.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/IFAJ.2025.20.3.2