Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: members, councils and India's place
Why in news: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is to lead India at the SCO Council of Heads of Government in Dushanbe on 19-20 October 2026.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a ten-member Eurasian grouping founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001, with a Secretariat in Beijing and an anti-terror body in Tashkent. India joined as a full member in 2017. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is to represent India at its Council of Heads of Government in Dushanbe on 19-20 October 2026.
Syllabus: Prelims · Current Affairs & IR; GS2 · Groupings & Agreements; GS2 · International Institutions
Why this matters for UPSC
GS2 international relations, regional groupings involving India: Prelims asks the SCO's members, observers, councils, permanent bodies and languages; Mains asks its aims and what it holds for India, from terrorism to connectivity.
In short
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a ten-member Eurasian grouping, founded in 2001 and governed by its 2002 Charter, that pairs security cooperation with economic ties among partners and rivals.
For India the SCO is a working seat beside Central Asia, Russia and China, best used to press counter-terrorism and connectivity that respects sovereignty.
Why it matters
For India, the SCO is the one standing forum where it sits with Russia, China and the Central Asian states at the same table. That matters for two practical reasons. Terror groups that move across borders are tracked through shared work in RATS, and India uses the forum to say that no member should shelter them. Trade and transport links to Central Asia depend on routes through other countries, so the rules the members agree on shape whether goods from India can reach those markets. Because every decision needs agreement, India can block what it opposes, but so can Pakistan or China, which keeps the grouping slow.
Prelims pointers
- Founding members (2001): China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; all but Uzbekistan made up the Shanghai Five.
- SCO Charter: signed at St Petersburg on 7 June 2002, in force from 19 September 2003; China is the depositary.
- Members today (10): Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; observers: Afghanistan and Mongolia.
- Dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Sri Lanka.
- Secretary-General: nominated by the Council of Foreign Ministers, appointed by the Council of Heads of State, for three years without reappointment.
- Suspension or expulsion of a member needs "consensus minus one", the vote of the member concerned not counted (Charter Article 16).
- A member may leave by notifying the depositary at least twelve months before the date of withdrawal (Charter Article 13).
- Russian and Chinese are the SCO's official and working languages (Charter Article 20).
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), consider the following statements:
1. The SCO Secretariat is located in Beijing.
2. The Executive Committee of the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure is headquartered in Astana.
3. Russian and Chinese are the official and working languages of the SCO.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only
Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only. The Secretariat is in Beijing and the languages are Russian and Chinese, but RATS sits in Tashkent.
Statement 1: correct. Article 11 of the SCO Charter places the Secretariat, the main permanent executive body, in Beijing.
Statement 2: incorrect. The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure has its headquarters (Executive Committee) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, under Article 10 of the Charter.
Statement 3: correct. Article 20 of the SCO Charter makes Russian and Chinese the official and working languages.
Eliminate: statement 2 is the surest, since RATS is in Tashkent, not Astana. Out: (a), (b), (d).
Trap: Swapped attribution. Astana, a familiar SCO summit venue, is given the RATS headquarters that belongs to Tashkent.
Remember: Secretariat in Beijing, RATS in Tashkent; languages Russian and Chinese.
In the news
More Explainers
- State Legislative Councils: Articles 168-172 and the graduates' and teachers' seats Polity
- Whales and dolphins in Indian waters: legal protection, IUCN status and strandings Environment
- The Aligarh Movement, AMU and the Article 30 minority test Polity
- Environmental clearance by States: SEIAA, SEAC and the EIA Notification, 2006 Environment
- Software vulnerabilities: CVE, CVSS, coordinated disclosure and CERT-In's role Sci-Tech
- Drug trafficking law in India: NDPS Act, PIT-NDPS, NCB and NCORD National
- Choosing the UN Secretary-General: Article 97, UNSC veto and straw polls World & IR
- UN Convention against Torture, and why India has not ratified it Polity
- NavIC: why India's navigation constellation cannot give a standalone position Sci-Tech
- International Energy Agency: membership, 90-day oil stocks and India's status World & IR
- PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana and the rooftop solar subsidy Economy
- HFSS foods: FSSAI's draft limits and front-of-pack warning labels National