Evolution of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is an international alliance consisting of 10 member states and 4 observers from Eurasia. It was started on 26 April 1996 as the Shanghai Five. In addition to the 10 member states and 1 observer, SCO currently has 14 dialogue partners and 4 guest attendance entries.
The aggregate GDP of the ten member states, apart from China, Russia, and Belarus, including India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Iran, has been estimated at $24.4 trillion for 2023. This would amount to about $6 trillion more than the European Union’s GDP.
The G7 countries’ contribution was $46.8 trillion out of the aggregate world’s GDP of $104.8 trillion, accounting for 45%: Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Going further and including the G20, the percentage share of this group of countries in global GDP would rise to 78 percent due to an extensive addition by China alone with an estimated GDP of $17.8 trillion in current prices in 2020, equal to only the United States’ GDP of $27.4 trillion, according to Florian Zandt from Statista.
The SCO is on track to evolve from a regional security framework to powerful geopolitical…
