Eleven years ago, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) began with just six members. This year, more than a dozen leaders from across Eurasia came to attend the SCO Summit in Beijing.
　　From June 6-7, the leaders discussed the future development of the SCO and reached consensus on the organization’s economic and cultural exchanges and security cooperation.
　　Historic summit
　　This year is the first year of the SCO’s second decade. During the past 11 years the SCO has played a significant role in maintaining peace and stability, while fostering bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the region.
　　Shi Ze, a senior research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies, stressed that this year’s summit shouldered a mission of “carrying forward the tradition and forging ahead into the future.” The leaders made a mid-term strategic plan for the SCO’s development.
　　“They evaluated the international situation in the coming years, and designed the SCO’s missions,” said Shi. He said during the past years, the SCO’s mission was to perfect its mechanism, and in the next 10 years its mission will be to push forward practical cooperation.
　　Being an influential governmental organization, the SCO has worked well on enhancing bilateral and multilateral highlevel exchanges. The summit became an important occasion for SCO leaders to exchange views on regional and global issues. During this year’s summit, many leaders paid state visits to China. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first state visit to China during his third presidential term. Also, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari made his ninth state visit to China.
　　In the field of security cooperation, the SCO has established an agency to coordinate its efforts to maintain regional peace and security. The Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Counterterrorism Structure (RCTS), the permanent body of the RCTS, is based in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan. SCO member states also hold joint antiterror military rehearsals regularly. The Peace Mission 2012 drill will be staged in Tajikistan in mid-June.
　　People-to-people exchanges are also burgeoning. For example, over 50 colleges and universities of SCO members have jointly participated in an online university project, which contains five subjects. Many young people are benefiting from this online university.
　　The summit was a milestone of the SCO’s development, said Alexander Lukin, Director of the Center for East Asian and SCO Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He pointed out that this year’s summit was of special significance because the leaders adopted a development plan for the SCO. Lukin said although the SCO is a young organization, it has a good reputation and good development progress compared to older organizations.
　　“Now the SCO is standing at its turning point and SCO leaders must figure out a practical development plan,” Lukin said. He said the global situation is changing and other regional and international organiza-tions are also moving forward. “Frankly speaking, disputes exist between SCO members. Participating in the same organization will help to solve conflicts between these nations,” he added.
　　Sergey Luzyanin, Deputy Director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, confirmed that this year’s SCO Summit was very important.“The SCO faces a mission in the following 10 years, that is, how to improve its position in the region and the world and to play a bigger role,” said Luzyanin. He concluded that during the past years, the SCO has been actively protecting peaceful development and stability in the region, and it can do more and better in the future.
　　


　　SCO enlargement
　　At the Beijing summit, the SCO granted Afghanistan observer status and accepted Turkey as a dialogue partner. Their participation provokes a question: Should the SCO pursue enlargement? Observers said yes, but they don’t think the enlargement should be conducted in a rush.
　　Lukin pointed out that enlargement will help the development of the SCO. He said five of the six member states aside from China are former Soviet Union nations. Putin has been ambitious on the integration of the Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS), and he will pay more attention to this point during his new presidential term. Somehow, the SCO has been combined with the CIS integration. “After enlargement, more non-CIS nations will be involved. Therefore, more SCO topics will be independent of CIS integration, which will quicken the SCO’s pace of development,”said Lukin.
　　Shi pointed out that Turkey applied to be a dialogue partner, based on the country’s recent diplomatic strategy of turning east. He applauded the SCO’s approval of Turkey’s application. He said Turkey is a moderate Islamic nation, and Islam now is the biggest religion in the SCO. “Turkey’s participation can neutralize the extremist Islamic influence in some SCO members,”said Shi. Besides, he said since Turkey is a NATO member, its involvement might enhance exchanges with the NATO, while the SCO helps Turkey by opening a gate to the east.
　　Afghanistan is a problem for neighboring states, and its permanent stability depends on a transformation of its economic structure. Now unfortunately Afghanistan’s economy relies on drug trafficking, Shi said. If SCO members can invest in Afghanistan’s processing industry and agriculture, they will contribute to peace, stability and development in the country.
　　Guan Guihai, a professor and expert on Russian studies at Peking University, agreed that there are enough reasons for the SCO to consider enlargement. “If any organization has formed a stubborn formula of member states and pattern of activities, it will sooner or later be dead,” he said. But he also suggested that the SCO should thoroughly study the situation before deciding when and how to enlarge. “For example, adding members will require more languages and more topics,” he said.
　　Luzyanin also said the SCO needs to enlarge. But it doesn’t mean that enlargement should start immediately, he stressed.
　　Luzyanin said Iran now is an SCO observer, but it is under UN sanctions. He said it is not proper for the SCO to absorb Iran as a formal member. Besides, India and Pakistan are both applying to be formal members, but neither of them hopes the other one will be an SCO member because of historical conflicts between them. Afghanistan’s participation is also a sensitive issue, considering its future security problems, he said.
　　Future tasks
　　Observers said the SCO must pay more attention to security. They also said as cooperation under the SCO framework keeps strengthening, the SCO should make more efforts on economic cooperation.
　　Shi said security challenges will come from both inside and outside the SCO. There will be elections in some SCO members, especially in several Central Asian nations, which could be potential threats to regional stability, he said. Disputes also exist between SCO members, such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Plus, there will always be the existence of the “three evil forces”—terrorism, separatism and extremism.
　　The biggest security threats, however, come from outside the organization. Apart from Iran’s nuclear issue, Afghanistan’s future security will be a real headache to the whole region. The United States declared that it will pull out all its troops by 2014. By then, Afghanistan might be a power vacuum for different forces, including extremist forces, Shi warned. “The SCO has to issue a document to deal with emergencies like this. Besides, it should establish a consultation mechanism on Afghanistan,” said Shi.
　　Guan said it will be unrealistic for SCO members to take military actions individually to combat terrorism. However, the SCO has enough political authority and validity to authorize its members to take military actions against terrorism to safeguard regional security, said Guan.
　　Chinese and Russian observers jointly stressed that economic cooperation must be a focus of the SCO’s future development.
　　Lukin said the urgent task is to establish a financing mechanism for bilateral or multilateral projects. He suggested building a multilateral bank to realize this goal.
　　“Economic cooperation is relatively behind in the SCO’s development, and there must be a breakthrough,” said Shi. He said the organization can be creative in finding new cooperative methods such as conducting more bilateral programs, as well as multilateral programs, under the SCO framework.
　　“China has huge amount of capital to invest and Central Asian countries are very interested,” said Luzyanin. He suggested strengthening economic cooperation, especially in transportation and energy. The SCO is planning to establish a road transportation network to link all its members.
　　At the Beijing summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao promised that China will offer a loan of $10 billion to support economic cooperation in the SCO.
　　Economic cooperation under the SCO framework can be bilateral. For example, China and Russia are influential powers and both are permanent members of the UN Security Council. Their strengthened economic cooperation will set a good example for other SCO members. However, Luzyanin said economic cooperation must pay special attention to balanced interests among all countries involved. “This is the most complicated part of all economic cooperation,” he stressed.
　　


　　About the SCO
　　The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental organization established on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai.
　　Founding members: Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan
　　Total area: more than 30 million square km, making up three fifths of the Eurasian continent Population: 1.5 billion, accounting for a quarter of the world total
　　Observing members: India, Pakistan, Iran, Mongolia and Afghanistan
　　Dialogue partners: Sri Lanka, Belarus and Turkey
　　Main goal: moving toward the establishment of a new, democratic, just and rational political and economic international order(Source: SCO website)
　　Summit Agreements
　　l Member states stated their shared vision for establishing a just, democratic and multi-polar world architecture and developing state-to-state relations on that basis in the Declaration of the Heads of State of the SCO Member States on Building a Region of Lasting Peace and Common Prosperity
　　l The heads of state of SCO member states approved the Strategic Plan for the Mediumterm Development of the SCO
　　l The heads of state approved the revised version of the SCO Regulations on Political and Diplomatic Measures and Mechanism of Response to Events Jeopardizing Regional Peace, Security and Stability and the Program of Cooperation in the Field of Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism for 2013-15
　　l The heads of state instructed work in setting up the SCO Development Fund (Special Account) and the SCO Development Bank to be continued and completed as soon as possible
　　l The heads of state maintained that it is important to strengthen SCO cooperation in culture, science, technology, innovation, tourism and health and ensure sound sanitation and epidemic control in the SCO region
　　(Source: Press Communiqué of the Meeting of the Council of the Heads of the Member States of the SCO)