The SCO has not expanded since it was officially founded in 2001. Before it can add new members, it must first create a legal framework for doing so — exactly the task before the SCO at this week’s summit. The current requirements for joining require potential members to have observer status in the SCO, which would limit the list of candidates to Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia, and Pakistan (Belarus, Turkey, and Sri Lanka are currently “dialogue partners”). Of these, India, Iran, and Pakistan have been tapped for membership; the full process is expected to be complete before the 2015 SCO summit, to be held in Russia. Despite the new membership, Global Times notes that the SCO’s primary focus will remain on Central Asia. An expanded SCO will be in a better position to achieve Xi’s vision of becoming the regional security heavyweight. Despite a tendency to see the SCO as a competitor to NATO, Chinese leaders stress that the SCO is something entirely new. In Dushanbe, Xi announced that “SCO members have created a new model of international relations — partnership instead of alliance.” An op-ed in RT by a former Russian deputy foreign minister struck a similar tone, contrasting the SCO with “the rigid discipline that exists within old-fashioned, cumbersome alliances of the previous era, which imposed serious constraints on the sovereignty and freedom of their member states.” By comparison, the SCO was described as “fully in tune with the realities and requirements of the 21st century” — the model for future international relationships. With three new partners added to its ranks, the SCO is now better positioned to truly challenge those “cumbersome alliances” for primacy in shaping regional security. Ar Rehman :P Aqab Malik Hamayoun Khan AamaRa Fatima Habiba I. Butt
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 06:04:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015