Well, the war games are now in Chelyabinsk until the 17th. We have to wait a little while longer for the mass press releases that usually attend the political meetings of the Annual SCO Summit. But so far, things are looking quite interesting. President Hu of China arrived in Bishkek today, and it looks like he's smiling. In his speech he said that he hoped to bring “new additional impulses to the development of good, neighborly relations”. Mr. Hu will likely advance agreements on trade, economic cooperation, and regional security.
Military Exercises:
China View put together a Special Report on the military exercises, with some great pictures. Both Russian and Chinese officials were quite pleased by the conduct of the exercise:
Officials that were at the observation site unanimously assessed the exercise — the training session passed quite satisfactorily. All tactical tasks have been fulfilled at a ratherhigh level,” head of the maneuvers from the Russian side Colonel-General Vladimir Moltenskoi said. “So we consider the training to be quite successful,” he said.
Deputy commander of the exercise from the Chinese side, Major-General Qian Lihua said that the troops of SCO states acted successfully, which accumulated experience for the active phase.
Like Metal to Magnet
Not only does the SCO conference bring Central Asia's Republics together with Russia and China, but other national leaders attend for diplomatic meetings along the edges of the conference. Iran has publicly announced that SCO membership is of primary importance to its foreign policy. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be swinging through 2 Central Asian states before arriving in Bishkek on August 16th for the summit. He has just completed a visit to Afghanistan with Mr. Karzai, and will be visiting Turkmenistan's President Berdymuhammedov before winging over the Bishkek.
SCO Secretary-General Bolat Nurgaliev held talks with the Ambassador of Pakistan to China on August 8th. Turkish Weekly (via UzReport), writes that this meeting went off with extreme civility. Mr. Nurgaliev said that he was “confident that Pakistan's participation in SCO activity will become more efficient as the Organisation gains more experience in developing its contacts with the observers and improves its legal basis.” I believe this elaborately face-saving comment means that Pakistan again showed a high willingness to join the SCO and the SCO took part of the blame in saying “no”.
So neither Iran nor Pakistan made the grade this year, and neither did anyone else: the SCO announced that it will not add any new members this year. Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Losyukov made this announcement August 13. I would guess a few more geopolitical scenarios have to wind down or resolve before either Iran or Pakistan would be included in the SCO. However, it is fascinating to watch. Stay tuned: there will indubitably be more developments.
