Zubair Qureshi
Islamabad
Participants of a webinar on Saturday were of the view that Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was getting stronger to safeguard interests of the countries in the region.
Covid-19 has played havoc with the world economy, particularly the poor and the developing economies and the pandemic has extreme effects on the SCO region as well.
That is why the next SCO heads of states meeting would be crucial for coming up with the post-covid-19 regional policy framework.
The webinar was organized by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan on the SCO’s role in conflict management.
The participants included geopolitical analyst from Beijing Zoon Ahmed Khan, senior journalist and political analyst from Washington Anwar Iqbal, Eurasian affairs expert Dr Fahim Akhtar, global security analyst Dr Ashfaq Ahmed and CGSS research fellow Anushka Johum. The webinar was hosted and conducted by Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed.
Afghan peace process and its impact in the region is expected to be another top agenda besides resolving the pending conflicts between the countries of the region. Working out the regional cooperation for sustainable peace and economic prosperity, and cooperation in the health sector would be other priority tasks for discussions.
Zooh said SCO provided equal opportunity to all countries to represent their development agenda for regional cooperation as envisioned in the SCO charter and mandate. Though each one has the right to present their case, no one can play hegemonic. The respective committees sit together and discuss issues to resolve them.
She said the SCO’s main goals are to strengthening mutual trust and neighborliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.
Anwar Iqbal said SCO no doubt is getting stronger and meaningful but the question is if it would be able to combat the new emerging bloc in the region where India would be playing proxy for the US-Israel alliance against China. India would be taking on China in the SCO and would not succeed. The same will be the case of Indian-Held Jummu and Kashmir (IOJK). SCO won’t be able to sort out the Kashmir solution in near future even cannot compel India to soften the siege of the territory. He said Pakistan has lost its strategic importance in the US after getting closer to China on CPEC and other economic fronts.
