The Shanghai spirit moved into the next phase of its development as the fourth summit of the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) began at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on May 17, 2004. From a security-centred organisation that came into being in June 2001, the Tashkent Declaration signed on May 17 expanded the scope of the SCO to issues concerning economic cooperation, poverty eradication and trade.
The summit formalised all-round support for a comprehensive approach to maintaining security in Central Asia. In the security sphere, the countries reiterated their common resolve to fight the "three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism" and other transnational problems like drug smuggling. Member countries strengthened their commitment to "counter new security threats" by carrying out joint anti-terrorism exercises, controlling illegal trade in weapons and ammunition, explosives, mercenaries and so on.
A Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) was set up at Tashkent; thereby emphasising the importance that transnational terrorism has assumed for Central Asia, Russia, and China. Taking cognisance of the situation in Afghanistan, members also agreed that drug trafficking along Afghan borders and the reconstruction of Afghanistan is inextricably linked to security in Central Asia.
However, the SCO made significant strides in the economic sphere. Member countries recognised that forging stronger economic ties is instrumental in rooting out poverty, itself the cause of much of the unrest in the region. To this end, SCO members established five specialised working groups to deal with e-commerce, customs, investment promotion and so on. An agreement on the measures to boost trade in the region and formulate legislation that supports the free flow of goods, capital, service and technology was also part of the SCO's agenda.
The implications of SCO's ascent to the "new stage of full-range cooperation" are twofold. First, it brings to light the role a multilateral organisation like the SCO can play in a region where the struggle for control has been termed "the new Great Game". Soon after the fall of the Soviet empire, the Central Asian Republics (CARs) turned to Russia and later to China to ensure the stability of a region that found itself in the throes of an economic crisis, border conflicts and separatist and extremist fervour. The US too found entry points into the Central Asian region through NATO's "Partnership for Peace" programme of 1994 and the "Global War on Terror".
However, the SCO's recent summit highlights the fact that while the US has been busily engaged in conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, the CARs have turned to an economically vibrant China for the development and maintenance of stability in the region. The inability of states to deal with transnational threats to security as well as the fear of a hegemon riding roughshod over the interests of smaller countries makes a multilateral security and economic organisation attractive to small states in the region.
While many analysts have pointed out China and Russia's domination of the CARs and the SCO's anti-US and anti-separatist tenor, fact is a multilateral organisation like the SCO allows the CARs to bargain with countries vying for their resources.
Second, from China's perspective, the SCO represents one example of China's "soaring influence" in Asia. China's involvement in the SCO is as much a product of finding mutually beneficial economic relations as it is of China's "New Security Concept". More and more countries are seeing China's economic growth as an opportunity.
More importantly, China's quest for new sources of energy to fuel its bustling economy has brought about a more active role for China in the international arena. Developing the western region of China is an important policy of the Chinese Government, which is inter-linked to developing better economic relations with the neighbouring CARs. In the SCO summit held last week, President Hu pledged US $900 million in loans and trade credits to SCO members for the balanced development of the region.
The SCO is also the best example of China's "New Security Concept" at work. The new security concept was first given expression in China's defence white paper in July 1998. The new concept was proposed as an alternative to the Cold War mentality of military alliances. To this end, the white paper expressed China's dissatisfaction with the US-dominated world while underlying the importance of moving towards a multilateral framework based on "mutual trust, benefit, quality and coordination".
Support for the six-party talks to resolve the North Korean proliferation issue in East Asia and the support for the SCO to contain the threat of extremism in Central Asia are indicative of China's multilateral approach to political and economic problems concerning China. The SCO provides a perfect meeting ground for the six-member countries to formulate policies that are beneficial to the political stability of the region.
* Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Observer Research Foundation.
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