MOSCOW -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, one of the youngest international entities, is turning five on June 15 and preparing for the anniversary session of its Heads of State Council in Shanghai.
Since its foundation in 2001, the SCO has rapidly gained influence and has now evolved into a powerful regional Organization and a significant stability factor across the vast Eurasian continent. It has become a reality of regional and global politics, which explains the growing interest other states and multilateral associations have in SCO's forums and activities.
Recalling that this regional organization came as a result of a great confidence-building effort amid many pressing problems, all of its members rightly deserve the credit for their firmness, purposefulness, and perseverance. Through difficult negotiations, the parties ultimately came to an agreement on border issues that involved distances and number of signatories Asia had never seen before.
Back in the 1990s, when we were already working together as The Shanghai Five, we understood the crucial importance of pooling efforts to address new challenges. It was also clear that the underlying principle of our work would have to be that peace and economic progress in the vast region where we all live would only come through a multilateral partnership of countries that comprise it.
This was all the more true as the situation at that moment demanded immediate and well-coordinated action. Several Central Asian nations suffered from international terrorist aggression as terror ideologists fomented separatism, and ethnic and religious extremism across the region.
For many, the coalition against terror is associated with September 11th and the response it provoked in the international community. True, that tragedy marked a turning point in both public mentality and international politics. Nevertheless, it is an objective fact that the SCO founding nations had not merely pointed out the utmost importance of a joint efforts against terror, but had actually engaged in that fight well before the September 11th atrocity. In June 2001, the SCO member states came up with a pioneering initiative to establish a regional anti-terrorist entity.
As we now have an effective mechanism to fight what our Chinese partners term "the Three Evils" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, the next logical step is coordinating efforts to combat drug trafficking, and hence closely cooperating through our security services.
The SCO nations keep a close eye on stability in the region. On this issue, we are all open to any forms of joint action, for the Organization sees the entire Asia-Pacific Region as a reasonable scope for effort coordination and common approaches to security, and seeks first of all to build confident relations with regional counterparts who already have a record there.
With such a network of partners, we would avoid unnecessary duplication and parallel action, working for our common interests without any "exclusive" clubs and lines of divide. Announced at the Organization's 2004 Tashkent meeting, the initiative of such cooperation met with widespread positive response. In this respect I would like to touch on the issue of observer nations, a status new for the SCO.
Currently the Organization involves four observer nations: India, Pakistan, Iran, and Mongolia, and a contact group with Afghanistan has been set up to create a record of joint operation. This will undoubtedly contribute to the growing weight of the Organization, which integrates member states with an aggregate population of almost half of mankind. I would like to reiterate that the SCO is open to dialogue and ready for joint efforts for the sake of peace, stability, and development.
The Organization's wide scope of activities is not limited to politics. The SCO economic agenda is also very ambitious as economic cooperation becomes increasingly important and relevant here. The SCO region offers remarkable opportunities for joint mutually beneficial projects that can significantly improve living standards and turn Central Asia into one of the most developed regions in the world.
I believe that through efficient mechanisms of regional integration, the SCO nations will benefit from their intrinsic competitive edge in energy, natural resources, transport flow management, and traditional as well as innovative manufacturing, science and technology.
What we see here is an enormous opportunity for business and banking activity and initiative. It is no coincidence that the format of the Summit will include the founding session of the SCO Business Council, which will establish a coordination centre for businesses representing all SCO nations. We have great expectations about its potential to mastermind viable joint projects, and its efforts must be reinforced by the participants of the interbank agreement signed in Moscow last October.
Another aspect of SCO activities that is also becoming increasingly important is cultural development. The energy of academic and cultural relations, youth exchanges and contacts between people will undoubtedly make the Organization more vibrant and creative. We are developing this dimension on a strong basis of our nations' unique civilizational record and their enormous contribution to the global cultural heritage. In the future, interest in studying this legacy will only grow.
We have already amassed vast experience of cultural contacts and exchanges, and academic dialogue. We are drafting documents on joint projects in education as well, and are aware of the need for adapting SCO members' bilateral tourism and sports cooperation to multilateral applications.
I also anticipate that SCO legislators following their first meeting in Moscow in late May will assume a meaningful role in building up our cooperation, as will the SCO Forum, a recently established association of experts and scientists, which is expected to become the Organization's non-governmental expertise engine.
Our model of cooperation and the "Shanghai spirit" it embodies are becoming increasingly relevant. Working to clear and well-defined guidelines maintaining mutual confidence, debating openly on all issues, and seeking solutions through discussions and without resorting to any pressure the Organization has a consistent frame of reference which will hopefully enhance its international appeal.
At a time when an allegedly insurmountable cultural and civilizational divide between nations again infiltrates public agendas, the SCO demonstrates a remarkable example of equal Eurasian partnership a partnership strategically designed to strengthen regional security and stability, boost economic activity, and promote integration in which national and cultural identities will not be lost.
We can see now that the goals declared five years ago in Shanghai are becoming reality. There is a strong basis upon which the Shanghai Cooperation Organization can qualitatively upgrade its own cooperation and contribute to resolving global issues. This basis is the commitment of all SCO members to working together and acting in concert.
By Vladimir V. Putin
© Tehran Times 2006
