India’s participation in regional groupings such as SCO is important. It gives New Delhi space to address issues critical to regional stability. However, these platforms can be fragile. For instance, as leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to fight terrorism in the Samarkand Declaration, China said it will veto a US-India proposal to blacklist a Pakistan-backed terrorist. India’s engagement with Russia is underpinned by its dependence for military supplies and need to ensure Moscow’s neutrality on India-China. But Moscow’s growing dependence on Beijing can undermine this. Beijing has been building SCO and even BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) as anti-West platforms. The choice of new members and invitees underscores this impression. India has pushed back on this. Now it needs to be proactive in balancing the compulsions of its neighbourhoods and its growing relationship with the rest of the world.
Safeguarding national interests can no longer be seen as serving only India’s own interests. It should build wider partnerships on issues of common concern such as climate change, future pandemics, energy transition, protection and promotion of democracy to develop a pathway to deal with a churning world order. For that New Delhi needs to consider trade-offs to build a partnership that gives voice to countries that get caught in big power games.