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Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

Often called as NATO of China, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is fast becoming a hotspot of Geopolitics for the Eurasia region. The platform came in to existence on 26th of April 1996 with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions in Shanghai by the heads of states of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. The grouping was then called as Shanghai 5 and was led by Russia, although immediately out of thee crippling economic conditions after the fall of USSR, yet the most formidable power among the members of the Grouping then.

However, in 2001 annual summit, once again held in Shanghai, Uzbekistan was admitted as a member of the Grouping, and the official name of the grouping became Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which was in the annual summit of 2002 held in St. Petersburg established as a multilateral organization with the signing of SCO Charter.

The primary objective of the organization, as perceived was to strengthen the security situation of the member states along with dealing the increasing threat of terrorism, which nearly all of its member states were facing. The 2002 charter, which formally established the Organisation and propounded the organisation's purposes, principles, structures and form of operation, for the first time enumerated its objectives as Economic Cooperation and Cultural Cooperation along with Security Concerns and Military activities.

The Organisation

The Secretariat of the SCO is the primary executive body of the organisation. It serves to implement organisational decisions and decrees, drafts proposed documents (such as declarations and agendas), function as a document depository for the organisation, arranges specific activities within the SCO framework, and promotes and disseminates information about the SCO. It is located in Beijing.

As the Charter of the organization enumerates, the Council of Heads of State is the top decision-making body in the SCO. This council meets at the SCO summits, which are held each year in one of the member states' capital cities.

Whereas, the Council of Heads of Government is the second-highest council in the organisation. This council also holds annual summits, at which time members discuss issues of multilateral cooperation and also approves the organisation's budget.

However, these two council meetings are preceded by the Council of Foreign Ministers, also held regularly, where they discuss the current international situation and the SCO's interaction with other international organisations. The Council of National Coordinators coordinates the multilateral cooperation of member states within the framework of the SCO's charter.

The amount of importance accorded to Anti-Terrorist activities accorded by this organisation can be perceived from the fact of establishment of Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). The body, headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. The Head of RATS is elected to a three-year term. Each member state also sends a permanent representative to RATS.

Geopolitical Significance of the Organisation

SCO is fast becoming a platform for intense Geo-strategic maneuvering. As has been propounded by H. J. Mackinder in his ‘Geographical Pivot of History’ and later substantiated by the researches of Zbigniew




Brzezinski, the Central Asian region has often been considered as the Heart land of Geo-politics as it can prove to be key to control Eurasian Region and in turn Eurasia has the potential to control the rest of the world.

It is often said that ‘Russia and China have been paying attention to Brzezinski's theory, since they formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2001, ostensibly to curb extremism in the region and enhance border security, but most probably with the real objective of counterbalancing the activities of the United States and NATO in Central Asia.’

This significance also increased with the fact of rising Political stature of China and prolonged presence of US and western armed forces in Afghanistan. The present situation in Ukraine also fueled in the significance of the Grouping.

Especially the condition of Ukraine is worth mentioning in this respect. With the annexation of Crimea, Russia had to face numerous sanctions from the West, which even included its expulsion from the G-8 and boycott of Russian energy in Europe. The situation was economically extremely strenuous for Russia, which was subsequently relieved by the involvement of its SCO ally China. China and Russia entered into a deal of $ 400 Billion Gas amounting to 38 billion cubic meter annually in May 2014, which was latter increased by another 30 billion cubic meter in the latter half of 2014. These deals reduced the dependency of Russia on Western markets its gas export, whereas it also reduced the Chinese dependency on other sources, as they amount to nearly 2/5th of total gas import by China.

The position presently maintained by Turkmenistan, which is not even an observer to SCO, has also made the situation precarious. Earlier Turkmenistan and Ukraine entered into an agreement for gas sales and the deal was practically mediated by the US, similarly the US pushed for another gas pipeline project namely TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) to meet the demands of Indian gas imports. This has made the situation more uncomfortable for Russia, especially since the joining of Ukraine in NATO.

Now, we have to realise the fact that all of these landlocked Central Asian countries are richly endowed with natural resources, especially gas, which is the next big necessity of the world to meets its energy requirement. Since these countries are all landlocked hence the politics of pipelines is extremely important to provide them access to global market, which till date has been grossly controlled by Gazprom of Russia. However, with China coming into the scene, there has been number of agreements to connect many of these nations through pipeline with both Russia and China.

Significance of SCO from India’s point of view

It is an open secret that India has been trying to gain a foot hold in this region to counter balance the Chinese weight and countering the Chinese move of strategically encircling India. This intension was clear from the alleged military presence of India in Tajikistan, it is often alleged that India is maintaining an airbase in Tajikistan. But this is just one half of the story.

The most pressing need for India gaining a strong foothold in this region is due to the immense potential of energy resource in this region. Additionally, the regions promised the sign of a newly emerging market for India. Say for example, Kazakhstan has been witnessing a robust growth in economic terms since this decade, similar things can be said about Uzbekistan. Although Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have relatively fallen back in terms of economic development but they too are betraying signs of resurgence and additionally they have vast reserves of untapped energy resources, which can be channelised if India along with Iran is able to develop a transit through Chahbahar port connecting these Central Asian Economies through Afghanistan. In addition to these, the upcoming TAPI pipeline can also provide an alternative to achieving this objective.

However, the success of these projects depend on the amount of success that Shanghai Cooperation Organisation members can leverage in handling terrorism emanating in this part of the world. This is also




an objective, which India needs these Central Asian Countries along with Russia and China to work together, so that it can handle the menace terrorism is causing it back home.

Henceforth, if we try to list in brief the significance that SCO holds for India, It is:-

1. Countering the weight of China in such multilateral platforms. 2. Countering the possible encirclement of India by China. 3. Gaining the access of these Central Asian Markets through economic cooperation. 4. Gaining access to the energy & other natural resources that these Central Asian countries have to

offer. 5. After the completion of Economic and Infrastructural integration of South Asian (a direction

towards which some major strides have already been made.) to integrate these Central Asian countries with India through Afghanistan, (whether through Pakistan or Iran), which has the potential to create a win-win situation for these countries as well as India.

6. Creating a common platform to tackle the menace of terrorism, which even these countries are facing.

Comment

In conclusion, we can say, the way of conflict is detriment to growth and is in no one’s benefit, hence forth, the upcoming admission of India and Pakistan in this multilateral platform and the possibility of integration of Iran would convert this platform into one, which in all practical terms would represent nearly 40% of the world population and 30% of the GDP.

Plus an economic integration of these countries, which is highly probable, would have the potential for betterment of a vast majority of the world population.

The Organisation with its inherent mechanism to tackle terrorism can also be a pathfinder in handling the

global menace.

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