SCO: Great Achievements and Broad Prospects

Cheng Guoping

SCO: Great Achievements and Broad Prospects

Cheng Guoping

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has scored great achievements since its inception in the cooperation among its member states in the security, economic, cultural and other fields under the guidance of the Shanghai Spirit. As a new regional organization, the SCO has set up a model of new-type state-to-state relationship and shaped new concepts of security as well as development with ever-rising international standing and influence. In the meantime, the SCO also faces various fresh challenges and threats under the complicated and volatile international situation.

I. SCO’s Great Achievements in the Past Decade

In the past ten years since its founding, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has achieved notable rich results in the fields of politics, security, economy, cultural and people-topeople communication, external exchanges, organizational and institutional building, etc. Following are the salient ones.

First, the formation of a spirit, that is, the Shanghai Spirit featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common develop-ment. As early as in 2001, the Declaration on the Establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization explicitly put forward the notion of Shanghai Spirit. Followed through in the whole process of the organization’s development, this spirit takes mutual trust and mutual benefit as the origin of security, sets equality and consultation as the principle of interaction among the member states, pursues the goal of common development, and acknowledges and respects the diversity of the world with the belief that countries and nations with different civilization backgrounds may and should coexist peacefully. The Shanghai Spirit, which crystallizes the member countries’new perspectives on security, civilization, cooperation, and development, is a valuable spiritual wealth gained by the organization in its development in the past decade as well as a significant innovation of and major contribution to the international relations theory. The member states of the SCO have different historical backgrounds, national conditions and cultural traditions and take different development paths; it is the Shanghai Spirit that has enabled the SCO to evolve into a regional cooperative organization with ever-expanding scope of cooperation, daily-improving mechanisms on cooperation and constantly-rising cohesion and influence within a short span of ten years.

The Shanghai Spirit crystallizes the member countries’new perspectives on security, civilization, cooperation, and development.

Second, the formulation of a model, that is, the model of newtype state-to-state relationship among the member states of the SCO. The SCO member states support each other in their effort to safeguard national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, respect each other’s right to choose the political, economic, social and cultural development path that suits their respective national conditions, and commit themselves not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs and not to use or threat to use armed forces against each other. Upholding the democratic principle of equality among all countries, big or small, they also treat one another with sincerity and settle all matters of the organization on the basis of consensus reached through consultation, thus vigorously maintaining the common interests of the members. Therefore, in spite of the fact that the member states of the organization locate in the two continents of Asia and Europe, gather a number of ancient civilizations, embrace different religious beliefs and have differences in various aspects as systems and institutions as well as development paths, the SCO does well in seeking common ground while reserving differences, which enables the ideas of good-neighborliness and common development to strike root in the hearts of the people. On August 2007, the SCO concluded the Treaty on Long-term Good-neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Between the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which sets up long-term friendship as the principle governing relations among the member states as well as the principle of consensus through consultation when discussing and determining major matters of the organization, thus organically integrating the respective development of each member state with the common development of the region. This is a powerful force driving the sustainable future development of the SCO.

Third, the establishment of the “three pillars”, that is, defining cooperation in the security, economic and cultural fields as the major areas of cooperation. It should be pointed out that when the SCO was founded, the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism concluded at the first Summit of the member states set the fight against the “three forces” of terrorism, separatism and extremism as major task of the organization. Since then, the various parties concluded numerous documents on security cooperation such as the anti-terror convention, the agreement on drug control cooperation, and the agreement on joint combat on crimes, gradually extending the scope of cooperation to areas of strategic security, defense security, enforcement security, information security, drug control, antimoney laundry, combating transnational organized crime and so on, and quickly enriching the contents of cooperation. The member states held regular bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism exercises and cooperated on security for large-scale international events, contributing greatly to maintaining regional peace and stability. The constant deepening of security cooperation and mutual understanding and trust leads to the increasing need for cooperation in the fields of economy and people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Along with the initial achievements in economic and regional cooperation, the SCO member states signed the Program on Multilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation and its implementing measures, which defined the goal of economic cooperation and drew up concrete measures for implementation in a view to actively tapping the potentials of cooperation. The various parties made big efforts in carrying out pragmatic cooperation in the economic, trade, financial, energy, transport, telecommunications, agricultural and other fields and worked together to offset the financial crisis and address the challenges brought by globalization with initial progress made on trade and investment facilitation and the implementation of the projects improving connectivity and communication among the member states. In the field of people-to-people and cultural exchanges, the traditional friendship between various countries becomes stronger. Setting great store by cooperation in this field, the SCO vigorously promotes and cultivates the traditional friendship between various member states, thus laying a popular ground for the development of the organization. Cooperation in culture, education, public health, science and technology, disaster relief, sports, tourism and other areas progresses steadily with a range of cooperation documents signed. The SCO University has been launched, serving as a brand-new platform for educational cooperation among the member states. People-topeople exchange is becoming more and more frequent and the notion that people of various member countries should become“good neighbors, good partners and good friends” has been rooted in the hearts of the people. With rich and varied tiers and forms of cooperation, the SCO has, in the past decade, gradually formed the comprehensive cooperation mechanisms that lay equal stress on security, economy and culture and combine governmental and non-governmental cooperation. This is the inevitable trend of the regional integration process, and also the orientation of the SCO’s future development.

The constant deepening of security cooperation and mutual understanding and trust leads to the increasing need for cooperation in the fields of economy and people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

Fourth, the smooth development of the mechanization and institutionalization of the organization. The SCO has set up a relatively complete system of mechanisms, which includes the multi-layered and wide-ranging meeting mechanisms for the heads of state, prime ministers, secretaries to the SCO Security Council, ministers, and national coordinators as well as the two standing institutions – the SCO Secretariat and the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure. Enjoying the various essential elements and legal ground for a high-level international organization, the SCO has laid a good foundation for its future development.

The SCO has been acknowledged by the UN as an indispensable regional organization in handling the regional security issues in all respects.

Fifth, the constant enhancing of the organization’s international standing and influence. SCO’s purposes and principles have been widely acknowledged by the international community and more and more countries and international or-ganizations have expressed their intention to establish cooperative ties with it. By now, the SCO has six member states, four observer states and two dialogue partners, and has entered into cooperative relationship with the United Nations, the Community of Independent States, the Association of South East Asian Nations and other regional and international organizations with expanding scope of cooperation. The SCO also took an active part in resolving the Afghan issue and made due contributions to Afghanistan’s peaceful reconstruction. The presidents of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan were invited to attend the SCO’s summit meeting on several occasions, which fully demonstrated the organization’s attraction to countries of different types in the region. By its own effort and on its own merit, the SCO has been acknowledged by the UN as an indispensable regional organization in handling the regional security issues in all respects.

II. The Central Asian Situation and SCO

At present, the international political and economic situation is complicated and changeable, West Asia and North Africa are beset with protracted turbulence, and the debt crises in the United States and Europe flared up while the international financial crisis has not yet subdued. Against this backdrop, we see that the SCO space, which includes the Central Asian region, enjoys basic political stability, sustained economic growth, brisk investment and trade, and closer connection and communication. Though divergent in their national conditions, the various member states of the SCO put economic rejuvenation, livelihood improvement and better governance on top of their agenda, learned from and complemented with each other, and worked together for common development, thus becoming a constructive force in maintaining world peace and stability as well as promoting the healthy development of the international economy. In the past decade, the trade volume between China and other member states of the SCO rose from US$12.1 billion to nearly 90 billion, an increase of seven times, which is higher than the rate of increase of China’s total foreign trade. In the meanwhile, the SCO member states have become one of the most important and preferred destinations for China’s overseas investment. By end of the first half of 2011, China had become the largest trading partner of Russia, the second largest trading partner of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and the third largest trading partner of Uzbekistan. All these results are inseparable with the efforts of the SCO member states to constantly expand pragmatic cooperation within the organization’s framework.

SCO member states have become one of the most important and preferred destinations for China’s overseas investment.

At the same time, we should not fail to see that there still exist some uncertainties that warrant our attention in our effort to maintain stability in Central Asia. First, the “three forces”, drug trafficking, and transnational crime remain the number one threat to the region’s security. Al-Qaeda after Bin-Laden’s death and other religious extremist and terrorist organizations revived their destructive activities targeting at the regional countries after a period of disintegration and reorganization. It was the“Eastern Turkistan” forces that single-handedly plotted the terrorist attacks in the Kashgar area of China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region in July 2011. Second, the Afghan situation remains unsettled. The peaceful reconstruction process in Afghanistan proceeds at a snail’s pace and internal contradictions are hard to be resolved. As five out of the six of Afghanistan’s neighbors are either members or observers of the SCO, the Afghan situation has a close bearing on the security and stability of the SCO space. Third, the situation in West Asia and North Africa remains turbulent, which may serve as a stimulant to some forces in Central Asia to make similar troubles. Fourth, Kyrgyzstan is in a crucial period of national development. The country held a presidential election in late October 2011 and on December 1, the newly elected president Almazbek Atambayev sworn in, thus realizing peaceful transition of power for the first time in the country’s history. As a close neighbor of and member of the SCO as Kyrgyzstan, China sincerely wishes that Kyrgyzstan will embark on the road of stable and fast development.

The objectives and tasks of the organization to maintain regional peace and stability and promote common development remain unchanged.

Compared with ten years ago, significant changes have taken place in the international and regional situation which the SCO faces, yet the objectives and tasks of the organization to maintain regional peace and stability and promote common development remain unchanged. Standing at a new starting point and faced with fresh opportunities and challenges, the member states of the SCO should and are certainly able to further tap the potentials for cooperation, broaden the scope of cooperation and implement more multilateral cooperative projects that benefit the people of the member countries so as to steadily enhance their capacity to jointly resist various threats and challenges.

III. China’s Plan for the SCO during Its Presidency

China attaches great importance to the work of the SCO rotating presidency. The various departments concerned in China have committed themselves to earnestly perform their duties and set deepening pragmatic cooperation among the SCO member states in various fields and laying a good foundation for SCO’s development in the next decade as the objective and orientation of their work. After communication and consultation among the departments concerned, the Chinese side has drawn up a working plan, the main contents of which are as follows:

1. Holding a range of large-scale events with strengthened coordination among the member states

The Chinese side shall work together with other members of the SCO to push for rich results at the forthcoming summit, prime ministers’ meeting, foreign ministers’ meeting and meetings of leaders of various departments, consolidate the political trust among the member states, draw up a roadmap for pragmatic cooperation and formulate new measures for the maintenance of regional security and stability, thus upgrading the organization’s work in all respects. The successful convening of the Euro-Asia Economic Forum in September 2011 in Xi’an, China is the first large-scale international event held within the organization’s framework since China took up presidency. Attended by state leaders, prominent political figures, senior government officials and business representatives, the forum explored measures and channels for furthering regional cooperation and speeding up economic transition under the theme of “innovating Euro-Asia cooperation and sharing opportunities of transition” and made positive contributions to the purpose of removing barriers and achieving common development and prosperity.

2. Improving SCO’s emergency response mechanism

To jointly respond to all kinds of traditional and nontraditional security threats in the region, the SCO member states have enhanced communication and coordination on the international and regional situation. In the coming year, the SCO will lay greater stress on raising its capacity of responding to major emergencies in the region. The Chinese side supports the establishment of a pre-warning center for disaster relief so as to improve the SCO’s ability for disaster relief and rescue. To this end, the SCO shall adopt new practical measures and strengthen cooperation with other organizations and mechanisms in the region to jointly maintain durable peace and order in the region.

3. Implementing projects in the transportation, energy, telecommunications and agricultural fields and boosting financial cooperation within the organization

Rejuvenating the economy and improving people’s livelihood are the common tasks of the SCO member states. After ten years’ experience, the SCO is now in a position to execute largescale multilateral projects. The Chinese side proposes to give priority to pushing forward cooperation on building the highway network and the logistics flow system in the member states by speeding up the construction of a number of key highways including the E-40 International Highway and boosting the realization of road transport facilitation in the SCO space. China sets great store by mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of traditional and new energies. On September 23, the energy ministers of China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan adopted the Xi’an Consensus, planning to launch the SCO energy club, broaden exchanges on energy strategy, policy and security of the member states, unfold cooperation on energy technologies, and train energy professionals. Efforts shall be made to continue the work of building the information highway and e-commerce platform and unfold cooperation on crop cultivation and grain processing aimed at ensuring grain security. The Chinese side stands for setting up the SCO special account and the SCO development bank so as to provide ample finance for various multilateral projects in the region. Countries with greater capacity in the SCO can combine their efforts to render assistance to other member states.

“Good relationship between countries depends on affinity of the peoples, and the affinity of the peoples grows out of mutual understanding.”

4. Consolidating multi-level social, cultural and peopleto-people exchanges within the SCO

“Good relationship between countries depends on affinity of the peoples, and the affinity of the peoples grows out of mutual understanding.” The Chinese side shall hold a series of events under the theme of “Year of Good-neighborliness and Friendship”to enhance the mutual understanding, communication and friendship between the peoples of the member states with a view to laying a solid popular foundation for the SCO cause. The Chinese side believes that people-to-people and cultural exchanges are the bridge and link for enhancing understanding and building mutual trust between different states and peoples as well as the durable force driving the in-depth development of relations between China and the rest of SCO member states. The initiative and creativeness of the non-governmental organizations should be brought into better play and exchanges and communication between various social sectors of the SCO member states should be further broadened and strengthened.

5. Expanding SCO’s external exchanges

First, cooperation with SCO’s observer states, dialogue partners and Afghanistan should be deepened and concrete cooperation measures should be worked out to improve the organization’s capacity and achieve win-win results by integrating the member states’ resources and strengthening complementariness. Second, the Chinese side shall continue to make legal and technical preparations for the admission of new members in accordance with the SCO’s principle of openness.

China’s assumption of the SCO rotating presidency coincides with the beginning of China’s implementation of the 12th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. A striking feature of the Plan is to step up the transformation of the mode of economic development and take active measures to further open the hinterland and border areas and deepen the development of China’s northwestern region. Therefore, to better integrate the 12th Five-year Plan with the SCO’s long-term development and the mutually-beneficial cooperation with the countries concerned, further expand China’s policy and capital input into the SCO and make greater efforts to broaden the convergence of interests of the various countries concerned will undoubtedly further promote the common progress of the various countries concerned and the common development of the region.

During its presidency, China shall keep close contact with the SCO’s other members, carefully prepare and organize every major event of the SCO, make proposals and initiatives for cooperation in various fields within the framework of the organization in a proactive way, and vigorously push forward the pragmatic cooperation between various sides so as to prepare a good beginning for SCO’s development in the coming decade.

Cheng Guoping is Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.