Operations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
Ladies Circle Lahore Newsletter -Issue 1
Originally founded as the Shanghai Five in 1996, it renamed itself to Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 2001when it added Uzbekistan as its sixth member. Since then, it has added just two more members to it, Pakistan and India. Along with these three states are the five founders: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
The purpose of SCO’s formation was to act as a confidence-building forum to demilitarize borders to fortify confidence and neighborly relations among member states and promote collaboration in trade, culture, and politics, and build economies together. SCO also aims to battle security threats of terrorism, separatism, and extremism.
It is not the intention of SCO to attain a high level of interaction, rather it operates analytically along a path of seeking a mutual denominator in solving tenacious regional problems. The SCO is a consensus-based association that highlights the absolute parity of all participants irrespective of their potential. It finalizes a pronouncement when assessments, ideas, and approaches of the member states mature and amalgamate.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization accounts for almost one-fourth of global GDP. It has signed numerous international agreements and approved program documents on banking and financial activities and the growth of agriculture, business, and tourism. It further plans to create an SCO Development Bank and a Special Account that would provide financial support for growth projects. There have been discussions, under the SCO Development Strategy, on proposals of launching a free-trade zone among its members as well. In September 2020, the cultural ministers approved the idea of forming joint online film, theatre, museum, and library projects to preserve cultural diversity and nourish empathy among the public.
The joint work and decisions of Big Eurasian Eight over the years have proved that the Organization has the capability of evolving in response to the requirements of changing realities, time, future developments, and needs. It is a young body ready to take over the world.
SCO’s significance for Pakistan
Pakistan has been an observer with the SCO since 2005, applied for full membership of the organization in 2010, which got accepted in 2017 at Astana Summit, Kazakhstan.
The admittance of Pakistan into the group led to and paved a path forward for many opportunities. It aided in strengthening Pakistan’s friendship with China and became sent a solid message to the diplomatic world that attempts to isolate Pakistan on international forums. Membership of SCO gave a chance to Pakistan to increase its trade volumes and economic ties with Eurasian countries and allowed to negotiate issues with India.
By Aivania Fatima
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