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NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 8, 2025
India underscored the vast potential of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to foster shared prosperity and resilient growth at the SCO Trade Ministers’ Meeting held in Vladivostok on September 6, 2025. With the grouping representing 42 percent of the world’s population and contributing 17.2 percent to global trade, India urged coordinated action to diversify exports, reduce dependencies, and strengthen supply chains to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth across the region.
Representing the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Amitabh Kumar, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce, stressed the importance of an open, fair, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core. He highlighted the urgency of advancing a development-centric agenda that ensures a permanent solution on Public Stockholding for food security, effective Special and Differential Treatment for developing countries, and the restoration of a fully functional WTO dispute settlement mechanism. He further emphasised the significance of services trade, particularly the movement of skilled professionals, in driving growth and enhancing MSMEs’ participation in global value chains.
India called for de-risking supply and production networks through geographical diversification, interoperable logistics, predictable market access, and improved connectivity, while firmly upholding the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Persistent trade imbalances, it said, must be addressed through enhanced cooperation on standards, streamlined facilitation, and better market access. The Indian delegation cautioned against the misuse of export-related measures, warning that they should not be weaponised to create artificial scarcities or distort markets, and must instead be applied transparently to safeguard trust in international trade.
On the digital economy, India proposed new SCO workstreams aimed at building fair, transparent and predictable regulatory frameworks. It also called for voluntary cooperation on best practices and capacity-building for secure, innovation-driven digitalisation. Sharing its achievements in Digital Public Infrastructure, India showcased transformative platforms such as UPI for real-time payments, India Stack for identity and consent management, and ONDC for democratising e-commerce. These, it noted, are scalable and low-cost models that can reduce MSME costs, expand market reach, and enable real-time cross-border settlements.
In the sphere of sustainable development, India reiterated its commitment to equity and the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities. It spotlighted the Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) initiative, stressing that climate action must be backed by affordable finance and technology flows, while cautioning that trade-linked climate measures should not become tools of unjustified discrimination.
India also turned the spotlight on its thriving AVGC sector — Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics — as a dynamic engine of exports, employment and creative growth. The country’s successful hosting of the first-ever World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES 2025) earlier this year was recalled as a catalyst for global collaboration, creative start-up funding and talent development. With 17 co-production agreements already in place and regulatory frameworks being simplified, India is positioning itself as a global hub for film production and creative industries.
Expressing gratitude to the Russian Presidency for advancing a substantive trade and economic agenda, India reaffirmed its commitment to continued collaboration under Tajikistan’s upcoming Chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of Government. It pledged to work with member nations to deepen cooperation, strengthen resilience, and promote sustainable and inclusive growth across the SCO region.
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