The Shanghai Cooperation Organization 8th annual summit in Dushanbe two weeks ago covered many issues and issued several decrees. We already discussed how the grouping did not give Russia the diplomatic support regarding the Georgian conflict as they hoped, but the conference also set up joint military manuevers, moved along the process of an Afghan Contact Group-SCO summit, and made progress on the acceptance of new members, or at least putting the group's observer members on more sure footing within the organization. The SCO's official website and the Summit's Dushanbe Declaration both gave the official line of what was accomplished and agreed upon at meeting. From inching closer to Iran, India, and Pakistan membership to stopping ‘pscyhotropic substances’, they seemed to cover it all.
1. Joint Anti-Terrorism Exercises – The group agreed and actually already opened on September 3-4, joint anti-terrorism drills in Volgograd, Russia. These drills consisted of practicing 'search and investigative operations to prevent the activity of terrorist groups.’ Though I do not know much about these drills, it appears that they are not quite as large as previous SCO military maneuvers, specifically the two Peace Missions.
2. Economic Cooperation – A memorandum on partnership betwen the SCO's Interbank Association and the Eurasian Development Bank was signed, and the members worked toward creating ‘favorable trade and investment conditions,’ development of transportation routes and transit potential, modern information and telecommunication technologies, and hoped to further the usefulness of the SCO Business Council.
3. Observer Status – Work with the SCO's observer states, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Mongolia, was said to be put on a ‘qualitively new level’ and the SCO's Head of States approved the Regulations on the Status of Dialogue Partner of the SCO. An expert group was to assemble to consider a whole range of issues relating to the expansion of the group and to hopefully tell me what a ‘dialogue partner’ is. A report stated that Russian President Medvedev said that as a ‘dialogue partner’ the observers could participate in the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). Through the years, geopolitics, the real fears by China, Russia, and all four CA states, and organizational roadblocks have kept the group from expanding further, but this Dialogue Partner may be an important step in changing this. Iran wants to be a member super bad, so does Pakistan, Mongolia and India are a little wary, with the proof being that while Iran's President Ahmadinejad attended the summit in person, representing India was their Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Which brings us to the next topic.
4. Energy Club– When one looks at the SCO's official website about the Summit and its Declaration, nary a word can be found about energy supplies. An odd thing, being that all these nations deal greatly in this area and it defines a large part of their relations with each other. But also not that surprising as Russia and China have and will continue to butt heads in the region fighting for energy resources, and the CA states themselves have tried to make deals with as many partner as possible, even in the west, in order to diversify their portfolio. However, I was able to find an interesting statement by Kazak President Nazarbayev about what he hopes to the SCO can accomplish in the energy cooperation realm:
‘Projects to set up a single energy market and a common transport corridor of the SCO could be an example of the global appraoch to defining forms and mechanisms of cooperation…..links Russia, China, and the Central Asian countries is already a serioius basis for setting upa single energy space of the SCO. It is absolutely necessary to draw upa common energy strategy as soon as possible. There are all components for setting up an energy community in the SCO, within whose framework the interests of producers, shippers, and consumers of energy resources can be harmonized.’
So Nazarbayev is clearly for an SCO energy club, but what about the rest? I’ll get back to this another time.
5. Afghanistan Contact Group – The group appeared to give much attention to the narcotics trafficking problem in the region, and made steps to increasing cooperation with Afghanistan in this regard. According to the declaration the SCO leaders decided to ‘intensify the work of the SCO-Afghanistan contact group and launch preparations on the ground for holding a conference on Afghanistan under the aegis of the SCO to discuss joint action against terrorism, illegal drug trafficking and organized crime.’ This is an area where the US/NATO could use some support as the opium situation in Afghanistan is growing out of control and the Taliban are receiving more and more recruits from the CA nations.
6. Georgia Conflict – I have already discussed here how the weak statement put out regarding the Georgia-Russian conflict by the SCO undermined Russia's stance on this issue even more and caused it to be even more isolated, but here is a Russian source who strongly disagrees. In the same Dushanbe Declaration he takes a different meaning and claims that behind closed doors Moscow received full backing in its efforts in the conflict. It seems to me that Russia did not get exactly what it wanted, but it is also true that they were more than welcomed into the bosom that is the SCO.
