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Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders converged at Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16, 2009 for a summit that called for constructive dialogue and enhanced cooperation to tackle regional and international issues. The Joint communique of the summit informed that leaders “exchanged views in depth on a wide range of regional and international issues”. The leaders also called for the establishment of a more just and rational system of inter-governmental relations, and set priorities for future cooperation.
Attended by heads of state of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and leaders of SCO observer nations such as Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran the meeting had Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, as guest country in addition to representatives of the United Nations, regional and international organizations. It was the first time that leaders from observer states were included in a restricted meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council.
Declaration
The Declaration of the summit said the leaders stressed on regional cooperation for solving international issues. Constructive dialogues and enhanced cooperation are effective ways to seek solutions to regional and international issues, such as security threats, global financial crisis, food security and climate change, it said.
The leaders also called for enhanced supervision of financial institutions and more international cooperation, to prevent the further spread of the financial crisis. So, the member countries will “strengthen cooperation within the framework of the SCO, and make concerted efforts with the rest of the international community to build a fair and rational international financial system”, the Declaration said.
Club of Six
SCO, despite being high on rhetoric of emerging to eclipse the unipolar world order has no plans to become a “NATO of the East”. The six-member SCO, founded in 2001, has grown rapidly into a key political and economic alliance and has already eased out many United States military bases from member states Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan by playing its wider role in regional affairs. The group comprises Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. India, Pakistan, Iran, and Mongolia attend meetings as observers.
At the SCO summit, Russian President Mr. Medvedev pressed for a ‘supranational currency’ to replace the US dollar in global economic transactions and induce greater role for local currencies in trade among SCO members. “There can be no successful global currency system if the financial instruments that are used are denominated in only one currency,” Medvedev said alluding to the US dollar. But the proposal did not excite the summit.
On the regional issue of Afghanistan, Russia and some its SCO associates want to be part of any future settlement, where the US-led NATO forces are battling a resurgent Taliban. Russia and its central Asian allies are already suffering from an upsurge in drug trafficking and fears a worst scenario of Islamist militancy getting exported to their lands in case Afghanistan descends to more chaos. They are aware that the US is trying to find an honorable exit from Afghanistan and Russia is too happy to participate in shaping that outcome and work for a best possible settlement.
Indo-Pak Meeting
On the sidelines of the summit, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh held a one to one bilateral meeting with Pakistani President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, the first one since the devastating terror attacks in Mumbai in November 2008. “I am glad to meet with you, but my mandate is to declare that Pakistan’s territory must not be used by terrorists,” Singh told Zardari upfront before shaking hands with the Pakistani leader.
India harbours genuine concerns on the security situation in the region and Dr. Singh’s personal participation at the summit gave a voice to India’s priorities. “It is imperative that we genuinely cooperate with one another and on a global scale to resolutely defeat international terrorism,” Singh told delegates to the SCO. Washington’s ‘AfPak’ policy stitched around a pampered Pakistan has not gone down well with India as it feels that the U.S. funds provided to Pakistan to combat terrorism along the Afghan border are finding its way to the eastern front and there are not enough checks and balances to stop that.
SCO summit gave India additional options on possible supporters in the matter of cross border terrorism to look beyond the United States.
Elated China
Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and said the eight years since its establishment, the SCO, enjoying ever growing vitality, has developed into one of the most influential regional constructive mechanisms with its role of maintaining its member states’ rights of peaceful development, promoting regional security and stability as well as enhancing mutually-beneficial and win-win cooperation among members.
China offered US$10 billion in aid to crisis-stricken Central Asian states on top of US$7.5 billion Russian assistance package pledged to regional states. Critics say that such help often comes with political strings, as in the case of Kyrgyzstan that asked the US to vacate its military airbase at Manas hours after receiving US$2 billion from Russia in February this year.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the SCO summit and declared that the “age of empires has ended” and “international capitalist order is on the retreat”.
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