The 9th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit

THE three-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was held in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg from June 16th 2009. The last summit was held in Tajikstan.
Currently India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia are observers at SCO and the six members are Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikstan and Uzbekistan. All the leaders participated in the summit. Iran's President came one day later to join the summit.
Originally it was perceived as a counter-organisation to the US's influence in Central Asia, which is traditionally a backyard of Russia. Both China and Russia were not comfortable with the gradual expansion of US's sphere of influence in the region since the war in Iraq in 2003, especially the US bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (now the bases are being withdrawn by the US at the request of both the central asian countries).
Brief history
All six heads of state signed the Declaration of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on June 15, 2001, praising the role played thus far by the Shanghai Five mechanism and aiming to transform it to a higher level of cooperation. In June 2002, the heads of the SCO member states met in Saint Petersburg, Russia. There they signed the SCO Charter which expounded on the organisation's purposes, principles, structures and form of operation, and established it officially from the point of view of international law.
Objectives: Security and economic cooperation
The SCO is primarily centered on its member nations' Central Asian security-related concerns, often describing the main threats it confronts as being terrorism, separatism and extremism. However, evidence is growing that its activities in the area of social development of its member states is increasing fast.
In April 2006, Russia declared that the SCO had no plans to become a military bloc; nonetheless that the increased threats of "terrorism, extremism and separatism" made necessary a full-scale involvement of armed forces of the member-countries. There have been a number of SCO joint military exercises. The first of these was held in 2003, with the first phase taking place in Kazakhstan and the second in China.
On a larger scale, but outside the SCO framework, the first ever joint military exercise between China and Russia, called Peace Mission 2005 started on August 19, 2005. Following their successful completion, Russian officials have begun speaking of India joining such exercises in the future and the SCO taking on a military role.
The joint military exercises in 2007 (known as "Peace Mission 2007") took place in Chelyabinsk, Russia, near the Ural Mountains and close to Central Asia, as was agreed upon on April 2006 at a meeting of SCO Defense Ministers.
In October 2007, the SCO signed an agreement with the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, to broaden cooperation on issues such as security, crime, and drug trafficking.
At the same meeting China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao proposed a long-term objective to establish a free trade area in the SCO, while other more immediate measures would be taken to improve the flow of goods in the region. A follow up plan with 100 specific actions was signed one year later, on September 23, 2004.
On 26 October 2005, in the Moscow Summit of the SCO, the Secretary General of the Organisation said the SCO would prioritise joint energy projects; these would include the oil and gas sector, the exploration of new hydrocarbon reserves, and joint use of water resources. The creation of an Inter-bank SCO Council was also agreed upon at that summit in order to fund future joint projects.
In the summit On 28 August 2008 it was stated that "against the backdrop of a slowdown in the growth of world economy pursuing a responsible currency and financial policy, control over the capital flowing, ensuring food and energy security have been gaining special significance."
2009 SCO Summit
The leaders of the SCO on 17th June pledged greater unity, increased economic cooperation and a firmer resolve to combat terrorism. Both, the Declaration and the joint-communiqué were issued at the end of the two-day summit. The heads of the SCO member states - China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reached consensus to counter new challenges, which range from the global financial crisis, energy and food security to climate change.
The leaders delved into major security issues that brought the six countries with the leaders of four observer states - Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran and India - as well as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the special guest of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in attendance.
In their Declaration, the leaders reaffirmed that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is the international foundation for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. The SCO reiterated its strong support for the NPT and welcomed multilateral efforts to strengthen it on the basis of non-proliferation, disarmament and peaceful use of atomic energy. Last month's underground nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was "absolutely unacceptable," Medvedev told a press conference 16th June soon after the summit ended.
The pressing need for further economic cooperation for growth and faster recovery from the economic downturn was high on the agenda at the SCO summit. The leaders agreed to upgrade the SCO's Business Council and Inter-Bank Union from a mainly bilateral to a multilateral sphere so that the member states can better coordinate financial and monetary policies to push for growth and faster economic recovery.
China put forward a series of substantial proposals for deepening economic cooperation, including its pledge of a $10 billion loan for joint economic projects within the SCO framework. Announcing China's pledge, Medvedev said he welcomed China's endeavor "fully", adding that the joint projects, such as infrastructure, will bring the members economically closer.
President Hu also said that China would send trade and investment delegations to SCO members to promote imports and exports and two-way investments. Uzbekistan took over the SCO's presidency on 16th June and next year's summit will be held in Tashkent.
SCO and South Asia
The Summit in Russia provided an opportunity for the Prime Minister of India to meet with the President of Pakistan. It is reported that they had a forty-minute closed-door discussion on bilateral issues. After the 26th November Mumbai terrorist attacks, peace dialogue between the two countries has stopped and India insists that the infrastructure of terrorists must be dismantled and eliminated before dialogue may commence.
As member states discuss the SCO's expansion, Sri Lanka and Belarus were given the status of dialogue partners. The observer status of Iran, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan is understandable because of their proximity to Central Asia but Sri Lanka's inclusion as dialogue partner with SCO is to be noted by Bangladesh. It is suggested that Bangladesh may seriously consider becoming a dialogue partner with SCO. The more Bangladesh gets involved in multilateral organization, the more opportunities it will receive in economic cooperation and in building a positive image for the country.

The author is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.