THE historic 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has unanimously delivered an impactful and important message on togetherness and globalization amid the so-called wave of suppression and containment. Following the unprecedented challenges in the regional and international arena during the chaos and disruptions pushed by the Western protectionist forces, the SCO summit has paved a way of strengthening strategic communication, multilateral cooperation and coordination.
The SCO summit, commonly acknowledged as a symbol of bilateral interest, consultation, equality and spirit of mutual trust with the deepening respect for diversified civilizations has been sorting out the complicated issues of the world that is facing disorder, turmoil, instability and other unpredictable factors. In this situation, fraught with uncertainties, the SCO summit has emerged as a beacon of hope to achieve the pursuit of common and joint development based on mutual consultation for steering the world out of the crisis that is already facing a turbulent environment.
Attended by the member countries that believe in the vision of friendliness and good neighbourhood, the SCO summit has laid a solid foundation for maintaining regional and global balance by rejecting the narrative of De-coupling. The platform has pushed up cooperation at regional, sub-regional and interregional levels that are continuously deepening and solid steps have been taken in maintaining long-term peace and stability regarding the security situation. Regional security cooperation mechanism of various types established under the platform have expanded cooperation in such non-traditional security areas as counter-terrorism, cyber security and disaster prevention and relief.
Facing the drastically-changing regional situation and intricate security challenges, the SCO member countries need to consider how to embark on a path to build up a new type of security in the region for the benefit of all countries to forge an environment for enduring peace for the development and prosperity of the region. In this evolving situation, a multi-pronged approach that covers the economic, scientific, technological, social, cultural and security fields is required as the SCO member countries have a long way ahead to achieve enduring peace and common development.
Common security and development means that the process of every country to achieve durable peace and development should be respected and ensured and the SCO for the purpose is providing the platform to improve people’s livelihood, end unjustified distribution of resources, promote common development and to make security durable by addressing both the symptoms and root causes of the problems being faced. The regional as well as global challenges need immediate attention for the solution and this is only possible when the regional countries will be self-dependent by pushing back the manipulated growing interests of non-regional countries.
It has been witnessed that the SCO summit has injected more momentum for securing the common development and protection of regional and global peace as it is the fact that peace and development are directly connected. The narratives presented by the head of states show that they all strongly believe in unity, the comprehensive support of inclusive global development and want to inject more energy in it. The Chinese President Xi Jinping keynote speech highlights that the desire of people for a better and prosperous life is a common pursuit of all countries that can be achieved with unity and better understanding as peace, development, cooperation and win-win situation has become the trend of the times globally. It has been noted that China is working with all countries at the SCO platform and in the region to explore a new path of dialogue instead of confrontation and partnership instead of alliance.
China upholds the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness in its neighbourhood diplomacy, seeks friendship and partnership with its neighbours, and works to build a neighbourhood of harmony and prosperity. Following the achievements of SCO, it has become an obvious reality that China has played key role in boosting cooperation and coordination among member countries for global prosperity and security and the President Xi’s address exactly narrates the same vision of harnessing harmony for the platform that is open to new members as well. The inclusion of new member countries in SCO like Iran shows that openness and inclusiveness is the unique feature of this non-political platform that is ensuring the building of a shared future for mankind. The joining of Iran in SCO denotes that the global community has posed confidence and tremendous trust in the Charter of SCO and has known the reality that their opinion does matter in regional and global affairs.
The widening of SCO is a very clear message that regional integration is the future that has been pushing up the new era of trust and regionalism and the concept of shared destiny and win-win cooperation for the region is ticking up that also values the principles of this platform. Joining other countries as a member of SCO elaborates that the platform has emerged as a centre point of attraction for countries looking for cooperation rather than geopolitical conflicts. The move of welcoming the new full members has been raising the substantial value of SCO as a comprehensive and effective organization that is playing a central role in connectivity, security and regional development and in the same process Belarus will be joining SCO as a full member next year (2024). The development of expanding the SCO platform has opened up new avenues and dynamics of regional convergence that have strengthened the concept of “Look to Asia” which is advancing thoughts of acquiring common, comprehensive and sustainable security based on common understanding.
—The author is a researcher on diplomacy and media fellow of China, South Asia and South-East Asia Press Centre.
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