"Important for India to develop other pillars for support": Ex-Envoy Rajiv Bhatia lauds SCO summit participation as "diplomatic success"

New Delhi [India], September 2 (ANI): Former Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia on Tuesday said that India's engagement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit was a notable diplomatic success, noting that US policies had created "uncertainties" and that India was right to seek new "pillars" of support.

Speaking to ANI, Bhatia described the SCO meeting as exceptionally important given the unpredictable changes in the geopolitical landscape.

"Experts were right when they predicted that this SCO meeting would be of exceptional importance. And they said this because of the ongoing changes in the geopolitical landscape that are happening today. The US policies have created a great deal of friction and uncertainty, and speedy changes. Therefore, in that light, I think it was important for New Delhi to respond to the challenges in a manner by developing other pillars for support," he said.

Bhatia also highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visits to Japan and China as significant for India's foreign relations.

"So, Prime Minister Modi's visit to Japan and China assumed a great deal of importance. I think he had a very successful visit in Tokyo, and now the success in China is also coming in front of us," he said.

He noted that the SCO summit aimed to strengthen unity among Asian powers."Mainly, it is to project the emerging enhanced unity and solidarity among the Asian powers, particularly in this case of SCO, the Eurasian powers, Russia, China and India, and that would send its own signal to G7 to the West and to the US. Prime Minister made a very substantive and consequential speech," he said.

Bhatia praised PM Modi's speech for subtly addressing double standards in dealing with terrorism."The central point was that to us, SCO indeed stands for security, connectivity, and opportunity. This is quite remarkable, the way the Prime Minister has presented this interpretation. On security, he very forthrightly said that there cannot be double standards in dealing with uh terrorism, implying thereby that SCO actually was doing that in the past," he said.

He expressed satisfaction over the SCO Declaration, which condemned the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

"And we all are very happy in India today that the SCO declaration has fully reaffirmed Mr. Modi's view on the subject. The SCO declaration has expressed a great deal of support for India and sympathy for the Pahalgam attack, and they have picked up the same formulation as in the UN Security Council by saying that perpetrators and organisers of the terrorist attack must be brought to justice. So we are very happy with that as well," he said.

Bhatia also commented on India's relations with Russia and China, noting that while India-Russia ties remain strong, India-China relations are gaining new traction.

"Finally, I think with regard to the Russia connection, I think it is one-on-one of Indian foreign policy that the time-tested India-Russia relations would remain strong. What is significant is that the process of normalisation of India-China relations is now gathering steam," he said.

He added that China had been more accommodating of India's concerns on terrorism during this summit.

"We felt before the SCO summit that this time China would be more accommodating of India's sensitivities and concerns, particularly on terrorism. And this is exactly what has happened. Without China's direct, forthright support, the SCO would not have been so strongly in favour of criticising terrorism. So those double standards hopefully would be a thing of the past," he said.

Bhatia concluded that India's participation at the SCO summit strengthens its leadership position in Eurasia and the Global South.

"So overall, we can say with a clear conscience that India's participation in the SCO summit is a notable diplomatic success. This will produce better results, and this will give India a very clear leadership position both in Eurasia and also in the larger Global South Domain," he said. (ANI)

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