The Shanghai Cooperation Organization

After 20 years, though it began as an attempt at cooperation between five-Russian led post-Soviet states and an emerging China, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has become a major global institution, representing close to half of the world’s population.

This September 15-16, the annual submit will be held at Samarkand, one of the ancient centers of human civilization. Its priorities include

1) Strengthening the SCO’s capabilities in assuring regional security and stability;

2) Promoting friendship and good-neighborliness;

3) Raising its global profile;

4) Countering threats in the information and ideological spheres;

5) Expanding parliamentary links;

6) Energizing economic interaction;

7) Enhancing connectivity;

8) Intensifying cultural and humanitarian contacts; and

9) Raising the general effectiveness of the organisation and its mechanisms.

NATO’s new strategic concept adopted last June in Madrid describes Russia as the most significant and direct threat, and China – for the first time – as an enemy to Western security, interests and values. As a result, the international community has moved visibly closer to a Cold War division between the two camps in an intensifying rivalry over the World Order.

Moreever, China and India, as well as India and Pakistan, all view one another as major security threats.

Despite such diversity and complexity, the SCO, at the start of its third decade, is not only still in business, but is steadily getting more active and becoming more attractive to others.

In 2001, it started at six; after 2017, the membership expanded to eight, with another 20 countries or so listed as observers, dialogue partners, or in the process of joining. Iran’s inclusion this year is spurring the interest of Turkey and a number of Arab countries, notably the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar.

The SCO community could potentially include much of the Eurasian continent between Belarus and Cambodia.

In fact, the SCO’s lack of a single leader; its consensus-based decision-making procedures; its emphasis on national sovereignty and non-interference is a welcome contrast to the US-dominated NATO or like-minded groups such as the G7.

What can the SCO actually give its members, observers, and partners? The general answer is:

Security in their mutual relations and stability across the continent.

In details, what does membership entails?

1) Membership provides for a means to prevent or manage conflicts. It provides a unique platform for regular high-level contacts between one party and another.

2) Anti-terrorist cooperation is another obvious aspect.

3) Economic development has been a feature of the key areas of SCO cooperation. China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been followed by the North-South corridor linking Russia, Iran, the Arab countries, and India.

4) Peace could be cemented by restoring connectivity within the region and its links to the north and the south. The unraveling of ‘Chimerica’ and the EU-Russia decoupling in the wake of the Ukraine war signal the replacement of globalization with regionalization.

5) Western economic sanctions imposed on Russia have opened the market wider to Asian and Middle Eastern investments to pour into Russia.

6) A new impetus for Eurasian interaction has been created in the post-Ukraine environment by the seizure by Evil USA of half of Russia’s currency reserves. The central issue here is that of the reliability of the US dollar-based global financial system. Increasingly, national currencies of the SCO member states and observers, such as the Chinese yuan, the Indian rupee, the Turkish lira, the Iranian riel, as well as the Russian ruble are being used in trade between these countries. In parallel, national payment systems of these and other countries are becoming connected, allowing them to conduct transactions directly, rather than through the Evil USA and its Allies. Therein lies the beginning of a new international financial system which is free from diktat by a monstrous hegemonic Evil.

7) The sanctions imposed on Iran, and now on Russia, could in the future be slapped on other nations that find themselves in conflict with the Evil USA.

8) The international system is going through a deep crisis which will take a long time to resolve. While the future of the world order is being decided in the ongoing major power competition, a practical way of altering the situation to better serve the interests of the growing number of autonomous players is through developing organizations such as the SCO – independent, non-hegemonic, and inclusive.

In time to come, the SCO could become a model for the 21st century World Order in the World’s most important freedom of choice!


A-non-y-mouse.