Discuss the significance of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for India's Central Asia policy, with reference to recent summit-level engagement.

Central Asia is India's "extended neighbourhood" — resource-rich, strategically pivotal, yet separated from India by the absence of direct land access. The SCO, a Eurasian security-and-economic grouping, gives India a standing multilateral table with all five Central Asian republics, and Prime Minister Modi's participation in the 26th SCO Summit at Bishkek (31 August–1 September 2026) [1][2] shows how India converts that membership into sustained regional presence.

Why the SCO matters for India's Central Asia policy

• Institutionalised access: the annual summit cycle guarantees India regular leader-level contact with a region it cannot reach by land, making engagement continuous rather than episodic [1].
• Security convergence: counter-terrorism, radicalisation and Afghanistan-linked instability are shared concerns; the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) offers a standing mechanism for intelligence and capacity cooperation.
• Connectivity and energy: SCO diplomacy dovetails with India's Chabahar port and INSTC projects, which bypass Pakistan to link India with Central Asian markets and hydrocarbons.
• Strategic autonomy: participation alongside Russia, China and Iran lets India retain independent Eurasian outreach even while deepening ties with the West.

Summit as a platform for bilateral gains

• The Bishkek leg was clubbed with a standalone visit to Uzbekistan, pairing multilateral attendance with focused bilateral diplomacy in one trip [1].
• Sideline meetings with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov [3], and with the Prime Minister of Armenia and President of Iran [4], illustrate how the SCO venue multiplies India's diplomatic output.
• Bishkek's repeated use for SCO events, including an earlier SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting led by India's Raksha Mantri [5], reflects continuity across tracks.

Limitations persist: China–Pakistan dominance of the agenda, India's reservations on the Belt and Road Initiative, and thin intra-SCO trade cap the grouping's utility.

The SCO is therefore best seen not as a solution in itself but as India's most reliable doorway to Central Asia. Sustained summit-level engagement, backed by faster progress on Chabahar and the INSTC, can convert diplomatic access into durable economic and security dividends — anchoring the region firmly within India's "neighbourhood first" vision.