At SCO summit, Moscow and Beijing want to build a system of “Eurasian security”
The summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) opened on July 4 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. An intergovernmental cooperation structure founded in 1996 (initially called the Shanghai Group) by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Expanded to include India and Pakistan in 2016, then Iran in 2021, the SCO announced today the integration of Belarus, bringing the number of its permanent members to ten.
The organization’s initial goal was security-related: to maintain stability in the Central Asian region after the geopolitical upheavals caused by the breakup of the USSR. Today, it also serves as a foundation for important economic partnerships, particularly in the context of China’s new silk roads (NRS). Alongside the BRICS alliance, In particular, the OCS is one of the structures bringing together Emerging States of the Global Southworking to create a pole of power that could counterbalance the weight of the West in the world.
Supposed rivalry
On July 3, multiple bilateral meetings were held between the leaders of the member and guest countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping promised his counterpart from the host country, Kassym-Jomart Tokaev, to “to help in the development of Kazakhstan’s sovereignty” and assured him of the “China’s determination to fight for peace according to the principles of the UN and international law,” reports the daily r
