Nuclear rivals move toward security bloc
Print Edition
NUCLEAR-ARMED rivals Pakistan and India will start the process of joining a security bloc led by China and Russia at a summit in Russia later this week, a senior Chinese diplomat said yesterday, the first time the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has expanded since it was set up in 2001.
The SCO groups China, Russia and the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Mongolia are observers.
“As the influence of the SCO’s development has expanded, more and more countries in the region have brought up joining the SCO,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping told a news briefing.
“India and Pakistan’s admission to the SCO will play an important role in the SCO’s development. It will play a constructive role in pushing for the improvement of their bilateral relations,” he said.
India applied to join the regional security grouping last year, and SCO foreign ministers gave a positive recommendation when they met in June. “We await further developments,” said Sujata Mehta, a senior foreign ministry official.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Moscow for a summit of the BRICS group of emerging markets, and both he and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif will attend a special SCO “outreach” session as part of the gathering.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders will discuss the threat the Islamic State group poses in Afghanistan at the Eurasian security summit in the Russian city of Ufa on Thursday and Friday.
It will be preceded by the meeting of leaders of the BRICS group — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“Due to the spillover effect of the Islamic State terrorist activities, Afghanistan now faces a grim security situation,” Cheng told reporters. SCO leaders “will certainly have in-depth discussions on the Afghan issue,” he added. “And they will talk further about how to respond to the security situation there.”
China is sensitive to any spillover of Islamic-inspired extremism from Afghanistan, which has a short border with its western region of Xinjiang.
Cheng also said China remained on guard against the East Turkestan Islamic Movement which foments unrest in Xinjiang among the region’s ethnic Uygurs.
“It has participated in some terrorist activities of the IS,” he said of ETIM. “China is concerned about that and we will also maintain security cooperation with relevant countries.”
Besides the group summits, Xi will hold bilateral talks with Putin in their eighth such meeting since Xi became president in 2013. Xi visited Russia in May to witness a military parade to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
“The Chinese and Russian leaders have established a very good working relationship and personal friendship,” Cheng said, adding: “As permanent members of the UN Security Council a sound relationship between these two countries plays an important role in promoting world peace.”
He said they will discuss bilateral relations, including economic cooperation and “specific cooperation projects.”
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