[Analytics] SCO: New solutions to global problems

At present, Eurasia is becoming the main driving force of world politics and economics. In the future, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has a chance to become a kind of incubator of many solutions and initiatives in the field of security, trade, solving environmental problems, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation in Eurasia.

Today, the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically accelerated many international processes and exacerbated contradictions. The weakening of the US military and financial and economic superiority continued. At the same time, Washington has completely withdrawn itself from leadership in solving the problem of countering the main transnational threat of this year – COVID-19, and even more, began to hinder multilateral interaction (for example, by leaving the World Health Organization).

Despite the fact that the current period of Moscow’s chairmanship is taking place in an extremely difficult sanitary and epidemiological situation, the Russian side was able to implement much of what was planned. To date, 4 summits and 3 meetings of the Council of Heads of Government have been held on Russian territory, during which 66 key documents have been adopted (40 at the level of heads of state, 26 at the level of heads of government) aimed at the further development of the SCO.

Unlike Western integration initiatives, the SCO is actively seeking new, more effective mechanisms for countering international problems. Today, the general strengthening of selfishness in the politics of many countries has actually paralyzed cooperation in combating common challenges, including such traditionally key instruments of global governance as the G20 and G7. The significant advantages of the SCO structure are their openness and focus on constructive interaction, and not on pooling efforts to the detriment of the national interests and security of third countries.

One of the main events of the upcoming summit in Russia will be the adoption of the Action Plan for the implementation of the SCO Development Strategy until 2025 (for the next 5 years). The draft document already now includes more than 150 events that will contribute to multidisciplinary regional cooperation, ensuring political stability, strengthening security, expanding economic interaction, joint development and prosperity of the SCO peoples.

More than 17 years have passed since the SCO emerged in international architectonics. During this time, the organization has established itself as an influential participant in the political process, a powerful and promising structure for Eurasian cooperation. Currently, the SCO is considered one of the most successful international regional projects of the 21st century.

At the same time, at present, in the economic sphere of Eurasia, there is an overload of parallel developing integration processes, which complicates multilateral cooperation due to a number of external factors. Thus, Washington is increasing pressure on New Delhi so that India will take its side in the US-China global confrontation. Another problem is China’s expansionary development, as a result of which the risks of increasing dependence of the CAR countries on Beijing’s political will significantly increase.

It is expected that at the summit in Russia the parties will discuss issues of further expansion of the organization. In particular, at the moment the first candidates for membership are Iran (filed an application back in 2008) and Afghanistan (2015). Also, recently, there have been corresponding signals from Mongolia. Many European and Latin American countries, as well as Australia, are showing interest in cooperation with the SCO in various formats.