Status quo at SCO

Summit hardly moved the needle on cooperation

India’s presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which concluded with a virtual Heads of State summit on July 4, has yielded mixed results. On the one hand, it took place soon after a notably successful state visit to the US by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that conspicuously strengthened India-US ties. Contextualised within the Quad security grouping, which has the US, Australia, Japan, and India, the tenor and content of the India-US partnership could well be interpreted as an anti-Chinese axis. Together with purchases of Russian crude oil, India’s membership of the eight-member SCO — which entails conducting joint military