India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Russia this week for his first conference as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). What is a vibrant democracy like India doing in the company of countries like Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan? The seemingly quick and easy U.S. victory in Afghanistan put the pressure on Russia and China to consummate the marriage quickly. So Russia took the opportunity to pull India into the SCO as a counterweight to China. Russia wanted India in the SCO to prevent the organization sliding under China's control.

Source: Forbes November 30, 2017 03:00 UTC