The View from India | Bilateral troubles at a multilateral forum

India last week hosted a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers in Goa, which was marked by both the quest of the multilateral organisation to deepen economic cooperation and bilateral tensions between its prominent members. The meeting, a prelude to the SCO summit to be held in New Delhi in July, took place amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West over the former’s invasion of Ukraine and disruption in global payment systems due to the West’s sanctions on Moscow. The Foreign Ministers meeting agreed to strengthen cooperation in a number of areas, including economic and technological spheres. India’s proposals on making English an additional official language to Russian and Chinese at the SCO and setting up working groups on innovation, start-ups and traditional medicines are being discussed, New Delhi said. But tensions between India and Pakistan and frosty ties between India and China over border problems overshadowed the meeting.