The SCO Samarkand Summit: Dialogue and cooperation in an interconnected world: Promise of prosperity

A signboard of the SCO Samarkand Summit is seen in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of Uzbekistan in China

 

 

Editor's Note:

The 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will take place in the historical city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15-16. How the SCO member states will work together to address the most pressing global and regional challenges is receiving worldwide attention. In the countdown to the SCO Samarkand Summit, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev contributed a signed article to the Global Times on his expectations that the SCO, as one of the youngest international organizations that has realized a model for successful regional cooperation, will make a new contribution to solving the acute political and economic problems facing the contemporary international community.

President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of Uzbekistan in China

Uzbekistan's chairmanship in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has entered a dynamic period, fraught with various events and trends - the period of the "historical rift," when one era comes to an end and another begins - thus far unpredictable and unknown.

The modern system of international cooperation, based on the universal principles and norms, has begun to falter. One of the main reasons for this is a deep crisis of trust at the global level, which, in turn, has provoked a geopolitical confrontation and the risk of reviving bloc thinking stereotypes. This process of mutual alienation complicates the return of the world economy to its former course of development and the restoration of global supply chains.

The ongoing armed conflicts in different parts of the world have destabilized trade and investment flows, exacerbating problems of ensuring food and energy security.

Along with this, global climate shocks, growing scarcity of natural resources including water, a decline in biodiversity, and the spread of dangerous infectious diseases have exposed the vulnerability of our societies as never before. They lead to destruction of existential common goods, threatening the basis of people's lives and reducing sources of income.

Under these circumstances, it is obvious that no country alone can hope to avoid or cope with these global risks and challenges.

There is only one way out of the dangerous spiral of problems in an interconnected world where we all live today - through a constructive dialogue and multilateral cooperation based on consideration and respect for everyone's interests. It is exactly at the time of crisis when all the countries - whether they be large, medium, or small - must put aside their narrow interests and focus on mutual interaction, unite, and increase the common efforts and possibilities to counter threats and challenges to peace, security, and sustainable development that are related to each of us.

Effective international cooperation makes the world more stable, predictable, and prosperous. This is the most viable, accessible, and the closest way to solve common problems of the time as well as a universal insurance policy against future challenges and shocks.

A model for successful regional cooperation

 A sculpture featuring the logo of the SCO is seen in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province. Photo: VCG

The international cooperation that is in the interest of everyone is impossible without multilateral institutions. Despite certain shortcomings, they continue to serve as the most important agents of interaction between countries - at the regional and global levels. International and regional organizations help countries to overcome differences and strengthen mutual understanding, develop political and economic cooperation, expand trade, and stimulate cultural and humanitarian exchanges.

These are the goals and objectives that are being pursued by one of the youngest multilateral institutions - the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. In fact, it is a unique interstate structure that has managed to unite countries with different cultural and civilizational codes, their own foreign policy guidelines, and models of national development. In a relatively short historical period, the SCO has come a long way, becoming an integral element of the modern global political and economic world order.

Today, the SCO family is the world's largest regional organization, which has united a huge geographical space and about a half of the population of our planet.

The basis for SCO's international attractiveness is its non-bloc status, openness, not negatively targeting third countries or other international organizations, equality and respect for the sovereignty of all participants, refusal to interfere in internal affairs, as well as prevention of political confrontation and unhealthy rivalry.

The SCO's success concept is the promotion of multifaceted cooperation through ensuring regional security.

In fact, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has been called upon to become a pole of attraction without dividing lines, in the name of peace, cooperation, and progress.

Therefore, the number of states that are ready to cooperate with the SCO is growing every year, and this is especially noticeable in the context of the transformation of the modern system of international and regional relations. 

The economic value of the SCO is enhanced by the self-sufficiency of its space, where there are dynamically developing economies in the world with huge human, intellectual, and technological potential, and the existence of large volumes of unused natural resources.

Today, the total GDP of the SCO member states has reached about a quarter of the global figure. This is already a very solid contribution to global sustainable development from a regional organization that has just crossed its 20-year threshold.

In a world with new challenges and opportunities, the SCO has excellent prospects for transformation and growth, not only through quantitative replenishment, but also through the opening of new strategic vectors. These are transport and connectivity, energy, food and environmental security, innovations, digital transformation, and green economy.

Uzbekistan's chairmanship: towards common success through joint development

Accepting the responsible mission of the Chairmanship of the SCO, the Republic of Uzbekistan has relied on the strategy of advancing the development of the Organization by opening up new horizons for cooperation and launching usage of untapped reserves that each of its members has.

Our slogan is "The SCO is strong if each of us is strong." Implementing this, we have made serious efforts to make the Organization even stronger from the inside and more attractive from the outside to our international partners.

At the platforms of more than 80 major events held during the year, a comprehensive agenda was formed for the SCO - starting from the issues of further expanding cooperation in security, strengthening transport and economic connectivity, and positioning the Organization in the international arena, up to the search for new ways and points for development.

All these promising directions of cooperation for the SCO at this new stage of its historical development are reflected in more than 30 conceptual programs, agreements, and decisions prepared during our leadership tenure.

What's more, Uzbekistan's chairmanship in the SCO is a logical continuation of an active and open foreign policy course that has been pursued by our country in the last six years. This policy is embodied, above all, in Central Asia, the geographical core of the SCO, where positive and irreversible processes of strengthening good-neighborliness and cooperation are now taking place.

All SCO member states are our closest neighbors, friends, and strategic partners.

The chairmanship has given us a good opportunity to further strengthen multilateral collaboration and expand bilateral cooperation with each of them, as well as setting new targets for even deeper partnership.

I am full of confidence that it is important and necessary for the SCO to share its success story with Afghanistan. This country is an integral part of the larger SCO space. The Afghan people need good neighbors and their support now more than ever. It is our moral obligation to extend a helping hand, to offer them effective ways of overcoming the years-long crisis by promoting socioeconomic growth in the country and its integration into regional and global development processes.

Afghanistan has, for centuries, played the role of a buffer in the historical confrontations of global and regional powers, and should try a new peaceful mission of connecting Central and South Asia.

The construction of the trans-Afghan corridor could become a symbol of such mutually beneficial inter-regional cooperation. It is also important to understand that by implementing joint infrastructure projects such as the Termez - Mazar-i-Sharif - Kabul - Peshawar railroad, we are not just solving socioeconomic, transportion, and communication problems, but also making a significant contribution to ensuring regional security.

By bringing our positions closer to each other, together we can develop a new SCO agenda for a more peaceful, stable, and prosperous Afghanistan. Only in this way can we create a truly stable and sustainable SCO space with indivisible security.

'Samarkand Spirit' - the embodiment of cooperation, mutual understanding and friendship

Foreign ministers of the SCO member states hold a meeting in Tashkent on July 29, 2022. Photo: AFP

After a three-year pandemic pause that has caused serious disruption in trade, economic and industrial ties, the countries and peoples of the SCO need to communicate directly.

The ancient city of Samarkand, the jewel of the Great Silk Road, is ready to welcome the leaders of 14 countries with new breakthrough proposals and initiatives designed to serve for the good and prosperity of the SCO and each of its members.

There is no doubt that this legendary city will open another chapter of the SCO success story. The glorious historical heritage of Samarkand will contribute to this.

For many centuries, this city has been threading together countries from Europe to China, merging North and South, and East and West into a single node.

Historically Samarkand has been a melting pot of ideas and knowledge, that was "cooking" a common goal of living better, being more successful, and becoming happier. And everybody has known that the friendly neighbors are half of your wealth, you yourself are a blessing for them, because you know that cooperation, trade, oeuvre, science, art, and the best ideas do good, enrich, and bring nations together.

These unique qualities of Samarkand, which today has a modern and dynamically developing infrastructure, turning it into the most suitable and demanded platform for joint discussions, searching for necessary responses to regional and global challenges.

The integrity and interconnectivity of mankind are such that most challenges require joint work not only at the regional level, but also on the global arena.

Relying on the experience of our many years of joint work, we are confident that the Samarkand SCO summit will set an example of how we can launch a new, inclusive dialogue based on the principles of mutual respect, trust, and constructive cooperation for the sake of common security and prosperity.

Samarkand can become the platform that can unite and reconcile states with different foreign policy priorities.

Historically, the world looked upon from Samarkand has been seen as single and indivisible, rather than fragmented. This is indeed the essence of the unique phenomenon of the "Samarkand spirit," which can serve as the basis for a fundamentally new format of international interaction, including within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

The "Samarkand spirit" is designed to naturally complement the very "Shanghai spirit," thanks to which more than 20 years ago our countries decided to create a new and eagerly sought after organization.

Therefore, we are confident that in Samarkand we shall witness the birth of a new stage in the life of the SCO - the number of its members will grow, and its future agenda will be formed, and this is highly symbolic.

We are full of optimism and are convinced that the decisions of the upcoming summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will make a feasible contribution to strengthening the dialogue, mutual understanding, and cooperation both at the regional level and on a global scale. 

 By Shavkat Mirziyoyev 

 

When global power shifts | The Star

 https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2022/09/16/when-global-power-shifts

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First among equals: Putin and Xi had an official meeting before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Qingdao. Sloppy US policies have helped to build a growing China-Russia alliance for a full decade now.- AFP

THE week that was ended with a significant non-Western event often ignored or misunderstood by the West: the latest Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

The 18th annual SCO summit in the Chinese port city of Qingdao this weekend is only the fourth held in China. Beijing is relaxed about its role in a growing organisation of eight member countries, six Dialogue Partners and four observer nations – a confidence that suggests considerable clout.

China and Russia are the two hulking members of a group that boasts formal parity, being the conspicuous “firsts among equals.” And as two consecutive US administrations unwittingly drive these giants closer than ever before strategically, Western attention is led astray.

Western reports track President Putin’s travel to Qingdao and the diplomatic niceties exchanged there. At the same time, Western commentators are tempted to dismiss the summit as yet another futile talkfest.

Both approaches are wrong or misplaced. While Xi-Putin exchanges may not be the highlight of this year’s SCO summit, neither are they insignificant.

Sloppy US policies helped to build a growing China-Russia alliance for a full decade now. This is evident enough from the meeting rooms of the UN Security Council to the battlefields of Syria to the South China Sea and the Baltics.

The latest SCO summit reaffirms the trend but adds only marginally to it by way of atmospherics. There are more important developments visible at, if not represented by, the Qingdao summit.

It is the first SCO summit at which both India and Pakistan arrive as full members.

Beginning as the Shanghai Five in the mid-1990s, the SCO has grown steadily and now incorporates three giants – China, Russia and India – in the great Eurasian land mass where both the US and the EU have scant inputs.

With Pakistan coming in at the same time as India as an equal partner, the SCO should be free from any sub-regional turbulence within South Asia.

Turkey is also an SCO Dialogue Partner whose interest in full membership is not without broader implications for the West.

Turkey has considerable military strength and is also a member of Nato, hosting its Allied Land Command and a US air base in Izmir. However, Ankara’s years-long effort to join the EU has been snubbed by Brussels.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has famously mulled over choosing between the EU and the SCO, reportedly preferring the latter. How would the West find a Nato member joining a non-Western group led by Russia and China?

Deep-seated discomfort would be a mild way to put a reaction in Brussels and Washington. To US policymakers, Turkey is a strategic country because of its location as well as its status as a prominent Muslim country.

Both China and Russia have sounded positive about Turkey’s prospective membership of the SCO. Nonetheless, SCO members share an understanding of sorts that Turkey may have to forego its Nato membership before SCO membership can be entertained.

However, Beijing and Moscow may be less concerned than Washington and Brussels about Turkey’s SCO membership with its Nato credentials intact. That immediately makes Turkey more comfortable to be in SCO company.

Turkey has already received what amounts to special treatment within the SCO that no other Dialogue Partner has enjoyed. Last year it was elected as Chair of the SCO’s Energy Club, a position previously enjoyed only by full members.

Erdogan has called the SCO “more powerful” than the EU, particularly in a time of Brexit. Bahrain and Qatar seek full SCO membership; Iraq, Israel, Maldives, Ukraine and Vietnam want to be Dialogue Partners; and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Syria want Observer status.

Iran already has SCO Observer status and had applied for full membership in 2008. Following the easing of UN sanctions on Tehran, China declared its support for Iran’s membership bid in 2016.

The recent US pullout from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“Iran nuclear deal”) has further prodded Tehran to “look East.” These days that means China and a China-led SCO.

Iran already trades heavily with China with myriad deals in multiple sectors. Mutual interests abound, far exceeding the basic relationship of oil and gas sales to China.

As Europe treads carefully, mindful of possible new sanctions on Iran following the US cop out, cash-rich Chinese firms take up the slack. US policy is also pushing Iran, among others, closer to China.

In preparing for Prime Minister Modi’s arrival in Qingdao on Friday, Indian Ambassador Gautam Bambawale said both countries were determined to work in close partnership and would never be split apart.

This echoed two main points already shared by Indian and Chinese leaders – that their countries are partners in development and progress, and what they have in common are greater than their differences.

All of this seems set to undo the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) that groups the US with Japan, Australia and India, all boasting a democratic system in common in a joint strategic encirclement of China. But India’s relations with China have been on the upswing for half a year now.

The day before Modi arrived in Qingdao, a Quad meeting in Singapore closed on Friday with India expressing differences with the other members. Its Ambassador to Russia Pankaj Saran said the Quad was not the same as its hopes for an inclusive “Indo-Pacific region” (IPR) that did not target any country.

He added that India wanted closer ties with Russia as well in an IPR. Just a fortnight before, Russia’s recent Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak said President Trump also wanted closer ties with Russia.

That was only a small part of the roller-coaster ride of international diplomacy in the first half of 2018.

In January Trump condemned the Taliban for a spate of attacks in Afghanistan, vowing that all talks with them were off. Until then, top US diplomats were carefully planning negotiations with the Taliban.

In March, US officials blasted Russia for allegedly arming the Taliban, which Moscow denied. The following month Nato voiced support for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s efforts to talk with the Taliban to “save the country.”

Meanwhile Trump’s ramparts of trade barriers in the direction of a trade war would decimate allies from East Asia to Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed a European position in reaching out to China on climate and security issues.

By March the EU had dug in, preparing for the worst of US trade barriers while vowing retaliation. The WTO also warned Washington that it was veering towards a trade war with tariffs on steel and aluminium.

In April, China’s new Defence Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe arrived in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu. Wei rubbed it in for Washington, publicly announcing that his visit was to show the US the high level of strategic cooperation between China and Russia.

Two days later the Foreign Ministers of China and Russia expressed similar sentiments. They championed negotiations and sticking to pledges while weighing in against the unilateralism of a unipolar power.

Where China has the SCO, Russia has the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

If any discomfort is felt in Washington, it is from acting as a unipolar power in an increasingly multipolar world.

Source: Behind the headlines by Bunn Nagara is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia.



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