Can China’s hopes that Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will offer new model for international relations come to pass?
- The group’s members now account for over 40 per cent of the global population and it plays an increasingly important economic role across Eurasia
- But tensions among member states, including China and India, and uncertainty about its future direction may limit its effectiveness on the world stage
China has high hopes that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will come to represent what foreign policy chief Wang Yi has called a “new type of international relations”.
But while the bloc has expanded its role and membership since its formation as Eurasian security bloc in 2001, many diplomatic analysts say it still holds little sway on global issues, including the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Although it has become a key diplomatic tool for China as it seeks to steer regional priorities and increase economic cooperation among neighbouring states, some observers warned that serious disagreements among members – especially India, Pakistan and China – limit its effectiveness on the world stage.
China set up the group in Shanghai along with Russia and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as a way of building trust and easing border tensions in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the time its priorities were stated as fighting the “three devils” of terrorism, separatism and extremism.
Since then its role has expanded to include areas such as economics and trade and the organisation now bills itself as the world’s largest regional grouping – covering more than 40 per cent of the global population – after India, Pakistan and Iran became members, with Belarus on track to join this year.
Highlighting the importance China attaches to the bloc, Wang told an event in February to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of its secretariat in Beijing that the SCO “remains a diplomatic priority”.