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19th SCO Summit held in Bishkek under tense geopolitics of the region
19.06.2019
At a very critical moments, under the thick shadows of geopolitical issues, the 19th SCO summit held in Bishkek, Capital of Kirgizstan, on 13-14 June 2019. Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) emerged in this regions to promote cooperation among the neighboring states for border security, counter terrorism, smuggling, human trafficking, and promoting economic activities within the region. SCO Heads of States Summit is held regularly once in a year, where all the heads of states of member countries get together to discuss the wide variety of issues and challenges. It is a platform to discuss and explore a common strategy to face the emerging challenges and formulate a joint strategy.
This year, Summit was even more important as the region extremely volatile and is facing very serious issues like the Sino-US trade War, US-Iran Tension, Pakistan-India Tension, Afghan Peace process, Opposition of BRI, “Contain China” and Counter Russia and etc. The world is more obviously emerged multipolar, against unipolar a few years back. The US is in full confrontation mode to contain China and counter Russia. The US military built-up, with modern lethal weapons in the middle-east is also a point of serious concern for regional security. The whole region is under severe threat.
With this scenario, the SCO Summit is very important. There is a lot to do for the SCO member states, and leaders of the region must be seriously exploring the ways and means to face challenges imposed by the geopolitics of the region. It may be a very complex situation but I believe SCO is capable to meet all external challenges. SCO Charter is very comprehensive and addresses almost all aspects of possible issues. There is a need to implement the Charter in true spirit only.
China and Russia are very important members of SCO and major contributor to the development of SCO. All the member states of SCO, except India, are also a member of BRI, a mega initiative of China for the development of Infrastructure, connectivity, and development. China was the host of the last year’s Summit held in Qing Dao China in June 2018. All facing almost similar issues and problems. All share the identical strategic interests, except India, which is more inclined toward USA. There exists more commonalities among all member states.
This year, the member states emphasized the importance of “Shanghai Spirit” and the implementations of all previous resolutions. It was noticed that this time, on many occasions, UN or International resolutions were referred to achieve SCO agenda, like:
“The Member States resolutely condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They urge the international community to strengthen global cooperation in efforts against terrorism under the UN's central role by fully implementing the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, in line with the UN Charter and the principles of international law, without politicization and double standards, while respecting the sovereignty and independence of all states and also to press for consensus regarding the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. In this connection, they noted the signing of a cooperation memorandum between the Executive Directorate of the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee and the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in March 2019, as well as the holding of the high-level international conference International and Regional Cooperation on Countering Terrorism and its Financing through Illicit Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime (Dushanbe, 16-17 May 2019). The SCO Member States consider it important to steadily implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regarding the Iranian nuclear program under UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that calls on all the parties to fulfill their obligations unfailingly. They underscored a common position, noting that there is no alternative to resolving the situation in Syria through dialogue while ensuring Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. They emphasized the fact that cooperation within the framework of the Astana format had created the conditions for implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2254.”
In fact, referred to the UN or International Organizations may further strengthen SCO charter and objectives. In fact, UN was created to resolve all issues, but unfortunately, during last few decades, some countries surpassed UN authorities and unilaterally imposing their agenda and decisions on the world. The worst example in the history of humanity is Iraq, which was destroyed by only one countries wishes and evil-designs. Blaming Iraq for developing weapons of Mass-destruction, invaded Iraq, but later on apologized the allegations were wrong and Iraq was not developing such Weapons of Mass Destructions. The Example of Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Afghanistan are in the same series of crimes against humanity. What so ever the reasons, SCO is committed to resolving all issues amicably and through diplomacy and dialogue. SCO is opposing coercion, the use of force or unilateral imposing decisions on other nations.
It is felt that in the near future, more countries may join SCO as full members. Especially, the countries under threat may join SCO on urgent basis like Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Afghanistan etc. The expansion of SCO is inevitable and it will ultimately strengthen SCO. The next Summit will be held in Russia as the Presidency rotates to Russia already.
