Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION: A VIEW


Shanghai, widely regarded as the citadel of Chinese economy, is now fuelling an acrimony by hosting a summit of a group of Energy rich Nations, the repercussions reverberating even in the closed corridors of the White House. China although has declared the unison a combined effort to confront the three global threats terrorism , extremism , separatism , but the unanimity has much more to say . The presence of Ahamedinejad , the Iran president as an external observer with the invitation from the Chinese authorities ,amidst all the international controversies existing in the present scenario, has in fact stirred a hornets nest. Or citing it otherwise, U.S and its militaristic allies are not at all happy at his presence in the SCO.
The Shanghai 5 Grouping was originally created in 1996 with signing of the ‘Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border regions ‘in Shanghai by the heads of states of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China , Kyrgyzstan , Russia and Tajikistan. In 2001, the annual summit in Shanghai first admitted Uzbekistan in the Shanghai five mechanism (thus transforming it into Shanghai six). Then all six heads of state signed the Declaration of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, praising the role played thus far by the Shanghai Five mechanism and aiming to transform it to a higher level of cooperation. Later in 2005 ,Russia and China conducted their first ever joint military exercise called Peace Mission 2005 the next one planned in 2007 near the Ural Mountains and close to Central Asia ,thereby piling up grave concerns for the NATO .At the Moscow summit in 2005 , the Secretary General of the Organization said that the SCO will prioritize joint energy projects and the establishment of a Free Trade area. Along with Iran , Pakistan and India too received the observer status at the 2005 Summit in Kazakhstan. This is History.
In June 2005, the SCO issued a statement calling for a deadline to be set for the withdrawal of US military base from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The U.S was taken by surprise at this statement and thus began to focus attention on the sanctity and the real purpose of the SCO. China repeatedly denied the media hypes that the SCO was intentionally targeting the U.S with China’s Foreign Affairs Office publicly announcing that SCO never intended to get into a confrontation with any country. But Political Analysts have played down the idea that the SCO could emerge as a regional rival to the US or a concept of an Asian NATO’s emergence. But the idea whether the recently conducted joint military exercises might turn into full scale military alliance cannot be ruled out. Are we going back into a cold war era?
It seems an economic expansion is now on the cards at the moment for China rather than a militaristic expansion. The growing relations with oil rich latin American countries , once acknowledged the backyard of the United States , reflects it’s burgeoning demand for energy sustainability , the joint venture of China’s Sinopec with the Brazilian government owned oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro only legitimizes the prevailing situation there. Although SCO is primarily centered around the security related concerns of its member nations as claimed by China and Russia, the ulterior motives of the former on spearheading an Asian unity, inauspicious by the absence of India as its full term member, remains precarious.



Shereen Vijayan Kottikkal