Beijing’s Perspective on Expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: India, South Asia, and the Spectrum of Opportunities in China’s Open Approach

Abstract

China has basked for some time in the achievement of having promoted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), now in its eleventh year. Without a doubt, China sees the SCO as a useful foreign-policy instrument. But China cannot afford to rest on its diplomatic laurels. Open to opportunities to protect its stakes in Asia, China is very likely contemplating, albeit cautiously, an expanded role for the SCO that will include membership for India, its archrival. To Beijing, expanding the SCO beyond Central Asia is a political statement, exploring and helping to define a constituency to which it can appeal for diplomatic support in a range of regional projects that restrict US participation.