PM to visit Kyrgyzstan to attend SCO meeting on Nov 2

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be representing Pakistan in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s exceptionally-important meeting in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek, on November 2, the day PTI has planned to lock-down the federal capital here. Pakistan is in the process of completing the criterion established for its membership as instrument for verification is being completed for the process. Parliament has already ratified it.

Highly-placed diplomatic sources told The News here on Saturday that Pakistan has already informed the SCO Secretariat in Beijing that it would attend the meeting at the prime minister level.

Rashid Alimov, Secretary of the SCO who comes from Tajikistan, has confirmed from the Chinese capital that the meeting would take place on November 2 and it would continue for two days. The SCO is viewed as the largest and most powerful global organisation after the United Nations.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been invited for the council of the heads of the governments meeting. But it is unlikely that a meeting would be possible between the two prime ministers on the brinks of the council’s meeting if the later opted to turn up. The SCO’s six full members account for 60% of the land mass of Eurasia and its population is a quarter of the world. With observer states included, its affiliates account for about half of the world’s population.

The sources said that Pakistan approached the SCO 10 years ago for its membership and applied for the same. Russia publicly endorsed Pakistan’s bid in 2011. At the SCO Summit, China also expressed support for Pakistan’s application for full membership in 2014. Pakistan’s membership was approved by the SCO in July 2015. It signed a memorandum of obligations on June 24, 2016 at Tashkent to join the SCO as a full-fledged member. It is expected to formally accede to the organisation next year.

Pakistan is in the process of fulfillment of the requisite criteria. Pakistan has been enjoying the observer status in the six-member organisation, including China and Russia. The sources pointed out that Kyrgyz Prime Minister Sooronbay Jeanbekov has invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend the Bishkek meeting of the Prime Ministers’ council. The huddle will pay particular attention to effective regional cooperation in trade, economic, cultural, humanitarian areas during the deliberations.

The SCO previously known as the Shanghai Pact is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. These countries, except for Uzbekistan, had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organisation.

On July 10, 2015, the SCO decided to admit Pakistan and India as full members. The two countries signed the memorandum of obligations on 24th June 2016 at Tashkent, thereby starting the formal process of joining the SCO as full members. The acceptance process will take some months, by which they are expected to become full members by the next meeting in Kazakhstan at Astana. Iran, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Cambodia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Armenia also have the observer status in the SCO.

The Shanghai Five grouping was created on 26th April, 1996 with the signing of the treaty on deepening military trust in border regions in Shanghai by the heads of states of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. The same countries signed the treaty on reduction of military forces in border regions in a meeting in Moscow on April 24, 1997. At the Dushanbe summit in 2000, members agreed to “oppose intervention in other countries’ internal affairs on the pretexts of ‘humanitarianism’ and ‘protecting human rights’; and support the efforts of one another in safeguarding the five countries’ national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and social stability.”

In 2001, the annual summit returned to Shanghai. There the five member nations first admitted Uzbekistan in the Shanghai Five mechanism (thus transforming it into the Shanghai Six). Russia and China signed the Treaty of Good-neighbourliness and friendly cooperation on July 16, 2001. By 2007, the SCO had initiated over 20 large-scale projects related to transportation, energy and telecommunications and held regular meetings of security, military, defence, foreign affairs, economic, cultural, banking and other officials from its member states.

The SCO has established relations with the United Nations, where it is an observer in the General Assembly, the European Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), headquartered in Tashkent, is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against the evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. Over the past few years, the organisation’s activities have expanded to include increased military cooperation, intelligence sharing, and counterterrorism.

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. Since then China and Russia have teamed up for large-scale war games in 2005, 2007 and 2009, under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. More than 4,000 soldiers participated at the joint military exercises in 2007 (known as “Peace Mission 2007”) which took place in Chelyabinsk, Russia, near the Ural Mountains.

On June 4, 2014, in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, the idea was brought up to merge the SCO with the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. It is still being debated.

The Western media observers believe that one of the original purposes of the SCO was to serve as a counterbalance to Nato and in particular to avoid conflicts that would allow the United States to intervene in areas bordering both Russia and China. The United States applied for observer status in the SCO, but was rejected in 2005. Interestingly, more than 10 countries have applied for observer status/dialogue partner of the organisation.

The applications are pending, the sources said. The SCO has made no direct comments against the US or its military presence in the region; however, some indirect statements at the past summits have been viewed by the Western media as “thinly veiled swipes at Washington”.