India publicly refuted what was purportedly a joint statement by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a China-initiated bloc that India is a founding member of, that denounced Israel’s missile attacks on Iran.
Friday’s SCO statement denounced Israel’s attack as a “gross violation of international law and the United Nations charter.” The statement added that “SCO member states extend their sincere condolences to the people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The problem is that the SCO is a consensus-based organization that requires all members to approve these kinds of position statements, and apparently, India was not part of the process.
The following day, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a rare public rebuttal of the SCO statement, noting that “India did not participate in the discussions on the SCO statement.”
The SCO did not explain why India was not included in the drafting of the statement, but it’s likely due to the fact that India’s ties with Israel are much closer than those of other member states — namely China, Pakistan, and Iran itself, making it highly unlikely that the SCO would reach consensus if New Delhi was involved.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? The SCO, like the BRICS, is part of the new emerging parallel international governance architecture that China and Russia hope will eventually displace the U.S.-led international system.
One of the key hallmarks of these new multilateral bodies that Beijing and Moscow like to tout is they are consensus-based, not unilateral. What happened on Friday undermines that assertion, highlighting significant fissures within the group.
