THE currently held Islamabad summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Oct. 15-16) reflects promising signs and synchronicities regarding the much strengthened soft power bonds among its members where the leitmotif of collaboration, not competition remained at the heart of the summit. The Islamabad summit: ‘Strategic Opportunity or a Diplomatic Challenge’ aimed at strengthening regional stability, addressing ongoing regional and global conflicts, thereby focusing on security and economic cooperation in the Central Asian region. This summit also provided a significant opportunity for Pakistan to promote its sustainable economic future via SCO member states’ cooperation. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)– formerly known as the Shanghai Five—is an intergovernmental, cross-regional bloc, co-founded by China and Russia in 2001—plays a significant role as a regional force, contributing to stability and cooperation among its member states. Through policies and collaborative initiatives, the SCO enhances soft power by promoting and shaping regional identities and fostering a positive image internationally. The dynamic leadership of China’s President Xi Jinping transformed the SCO forum into an interregional strategic magnet.
Pakistan prestigiously hosted the 23rd meeting ( a diplomatic milestone) as the incumbent chair of the SCO Council of Heads of Government(CHG), the second highest SCO forum that deals with strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states, promoting their effective cooperation in areas of energy, trade, the economy, research, technology , culture, education, transport, tourism, environmental protection, including the humanitarian issues,thereby broadening its links with international UN’s agencies/organizations: ESCAP, UNDOC, UNESCO, and FAO. The Islamabad summit—presided over by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif—garnered a significant global attention, especially given current global challenges. The Islamabad SCO summit has been richly espoused with great attendance of several high-profile leaders. Additionally, as a host of summit, Pakistan not only provided foolproof safety and security to foreign participants and delegates but it also extended the norms of traditional hospitality to foreigndelegates. This event was further galvanized by representation of four neighbouring nuclear powers Russia, China, India and Pakistan.
Noteworthily, SCO member states were represented by the Prime Ministers of China, Russia, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as the First Vice President of Iran. Moreover,Prime Minister of Mongolia, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Foreign Ministers of India and Turkmenistan (Special Guest), including the SCO Secretary General also participated in the meeting. Pakistan is committed to the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ that stands for mutual trust and respect for shared prosperity and development in the geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic arenas. As Chair of SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) since 26 October 2023, Pakistan has hosted “Conference on Transport Connectivity for Regional Prosperity” on 22 November 2023, and the expert-level meeting of the Special Working Group on Poverty Alleviation entitled “Leveraging Digital Technologies to Enhance Social Safety Nets in SCO Member States” on December 3, 2023.
Currently, the SCO consists of 10 member states: the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the KyrgyzstanRepublic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus. While Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Mongolia hold the observer status, 16 states are its dialogue partners. In July 2023, Iran and in July 2024, Belarus joined the SCO. In the future, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, presently its dialogue partners, may also be given full membership.
In June 2017, the SCO took a major step forward by formally admitting Pakistan and India as full voting members. With the entry of India and Pakistan, the SCO now represents approximately 32% of the world’s GDP and about 42% of the world’s population. Moreover, the SCO region is rich in natural resources collectively possessing approximately 25% of the world’s oil reserves, over 50% of the world’s gas reserves, 35% of the world’s coal reserves, and roughly 50% of the world’s known uranium reserves. With its strategic geographical location and growing trade potential, Pakistan profoundly gravitates its bilateral partnership with the CARs. Further, New Delhi’s pragmatic decision to send its Foreign Minister Jaishankar is profoundly reflective of the fact that Indian political leadership cannot refute the expanding significance of the SCO moot in Islamabad amid the ongoing regional and international challenges. True, because of a dysfunctional SAARC, the SCO also holds great significance for the South Asian region. And, Pakistan relations with SCO’s founding member, Russia hold paramount importance in bilateral relations through increased trade, energy and defence cooperation.
Through the CPEC working group, Pakistan and China signed several MOUs—marked by the virtual inauguration of the new Gwadar international airport (Oct. 14). Since 2013, China has helped Pakistan restructure its energy sector via an investment of $ 20b, thereby bringing in mega energy projects, including coal, solar, hydro and nuclear projects.And importantly, promotion of regional connectivity remained one of prime objectives of the SCO. Thus, the SCO member countries have undertaken several mega-projects to enhance regional connectivity such as the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Central Asia-West Asia Corridor and China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway. Recently, the iron brothers – Pakistan and China – have started phase-2 of the CPEC. Needless to say, defence and security cooperation in traditional, non-traditional security sphere is a major driving force for the SCO’s development. Traditional security cooperation mainly includes ensuring border security, military exchanges, military exercises and other military mutual trust practices. While meeting with the Pakistani military leadership, China’s premier Li Qiang applauded the role of Pakistan security forces in curbing terrorism.
Nevertheless, the rising evil of ideological extremism– RAW-backed Hindutva, separatist tendencies-Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), East Turkmenistan Liberation Movement (ETLM) and terrorist groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) –poses a scowling regional threat to SCO’s credo of rooting out terrorism. While combating against the forces of terrorism and extremism, the SCO member states are also committed to making a crackdown on drug trafficking, transnational crimes and illegal immigration.
To conclude, by hosting this mega event in Islamabad, Pakistan has positively utilized its diplomatic endowment to broaden the SCO’s soft power spectrum of shared future. To boost its economic ties, Pakistan conducted some bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the moot. US’ South Asian expert, Michael Kugelman said, ‘’hosting the SCO summit is a really big deal for the Pakistani Government’’.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst.
