What is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation. The main objectives of the SCO are to promote good relations among member countries, strengthen mutual confidence, make collective efforts to maintain peace, security, and stability in the region, and promote effective cooperation in various fields such as trade and economy, science and technology, culture, energy, transportation, tourism, environmental protection, etc.
The organisation also aims to move towards the establishment of a new, democratic, just, and rational political and economic international order. The member countries of SCO are China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, and Belarus. Belarus joined SCO as the 10th member last year.
Do you Know?
The venue of a regular meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) is generally determined in the Russian alphabetic order of names of the SCO member states. Also, Russian and Chinese are the official working languages of the SCO.
How has the SCO evolved?
The SCO originated from the “Shanghai Five” established in 1996, consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. With the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 into 15 independent countries, there were concerns in the region about extremist religious groups and ethnic tensions coming to the fore. To manage these issues, a grouping was created for cooperation on security matters. It was a political association based on the Agreement on Confidence-Building in the Military Field in the Border Area and the Agreement on the Mutual Reduction of Armed Forces in the Border Area.
Building on this, SCO was established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai as an international organisation and also included Uzbekistan as a sixth member. The SCO was initially focused on collaborating within Central Asia to address issues such as terrorism, separatism, and extremism.
The Charter of the SCO was signed at the St. Petersburg Summit in June 2002 and became effective on September 19, 2003. This charter outlines the organisation’s objectives, principles, structure, and primary areas of activity. Additionally, in 2006, the SCO announced plans to combat international drug trafficking as a means to finance global terrorism.
In September 2003, the heads of the SCO member states signed a 20-year Programme of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation. The programme aims to establish a free trade zone within the territory of the SCO member countries by revitalising the process of creating a favourable environment for trade and investment.
India and Pakistan became full members of the organisation in 2017 at the meeting of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Astana. In 2023, the status of a full member of the Organisation was granted to the Islamic Republic of Iran and in 2024 to Belarus.
Belt and Road Initiative
China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative is a massive trade and infrastructure network that seeks to connect the country with the West in a model based on the ancient Silk Route. India does not support the BRI and has declined to join the project. The major reason for this is that the BRI passes through Indian territory illegally held by Pakistan.
How does SCO work?
The SCO’s highest decision-making body is the Heads of State Council (HSC). It meets once a year to make decisions and provide instructions on all important issues regarding SCO activity. A meeting of the HSC is chaired by the head of State organising the meeting.
Besides HSC, the Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss a multilateral cooperation strategy and priority directions within the organisation’s framework, to address important cooperation issues in economic and other areas, and to approve the organisation’s annual budget.
The organisation has two permanent bodies: the Secretariat in Beijing, China and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in Tashkent. The SCO Secretary-General and RATS Executive Committee Director are appointed by the HSC for a period of three years.
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