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Shanghai Cooperation Organization coming of age
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THE Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit meeting, in Astana, Kazakhstan, on June 8 and 9, brought a harbinger of good news towards regional connectivity.
The SCO was founded in 1995 and was modestly called the “Shanghai-5.” Its prime motive back then was to ensure border security and deal with triple evil of “extremism, terrorism and separatism.” This year India and Pakistan have become its new members.
In 2002 at St. Petersburg, Russia, SCO’s first two sections of the 26-clause document lay emphasis, first, on terrorism and second on economic cooperation. Its evolution passed through the first phase of confidence and security building measures (1996-2001); secondly, regional security against the three evils of “extremism, terrorism and separatism” (2001-2004); thirdly, moves towards becoming a comprehensive international organization (2004-2007); fourthly, consolidation phase (2007-2015) and lastly; opening up globally by launching mega-projects like OBOR (post-2015).
With additional members lined up in future, from Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey, SCO would encompass nearly half of the world’s population and almost two-thirds of a global geographical location covering: Russia, Europe, Near East, Asia, Central Asia and South Asia. SCO is coming of age as an economic-cum-political-cum security regional organization.
Not ‘NATO of Asia’
In the initial stage of SCO, many observers were dismissive about it as many termed it as the “NATO of Asia.” Some even contended that in a sprawling region, where countries were at odds due to different ideologies, alignments and national interests, cooperation of any kind was at best a pipedream.
The June 2017 SCO Summit afforded an opportunity for leaders of Central Asia and South Asia to get together and communicate with each other. The OBOR mega project has attracted admiration in the region.
In fact, the world center of gravity is pivoting towards Asia-Pacific. Hard traditional alignments are blurring. In the age of regionalization and globalization the SCO hopes to forge connectivity through trade, business and investments.
Nowadays, no county can live in hermetic or splendid isolation: the pressing global issues of terrorism, poverty, climate change, disaster management and border security and cyber-security demands serious global collaboration. It is expected that full membership would modify hard stances and create a requisite sense of responsibility and restraint in national mindsets.
Diplomacy and dialogue could discourage hardliners and militants against regional cooperation. Moreover, ongoing SCO meetings, future energy club, common market plans and other initiatives may nudge states into a co-operative mode through bilateral talks.
Of late, accepting English as an official language of SCO is a good augury, besides Chinese and Russian languages.
In short, with recent addition of full members, already having “observer status” members and “dialogue partners,” the SCO train is confidently steaming ahead to benefit many nations.
The writer is Visiting Faculty at Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, former Adviser COMSATS and ex-President, Islamabad Policy Research Institute. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.
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