Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

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Context

• Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend next week’s virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) being hosted by India.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

About

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO) is an intergovernmental organization founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001.

Member States

• SCO currently comprises eight Member States -China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).
• It has Four Observer States interested in acceding to full membership - Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia.
• It has six “Dialogue Partners” - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
• In 2021, the decision was made to start the accession process of Iran to the SCO as a full member, and Egypt, Qatar as well as Saudi Arabia became dialogue partners. 

Focus Area

• Since its inception in 2001, the SCO has mainly focused on regional security issues, its fight against regional terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism. To date, the SCO’s priorities also include regional development.

Observer

• The SCO has been an observer in the UN General Assembly since 2005.

Partnerships

• SCO Secretariat has also established partnerships with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in addition to its ongoing cooperation with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the UN Office on Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).
• The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), as well as UNRCCA (United Nations Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia) maintain regular contacts with the SCO officials.
• The cooperation activities focus on security developments in the region and key issues related to counterterrorism and prevention of violent extremism. 
• Since 2017, DPPA has deployed a Liaison Officer to the SCO in Beijing.

SCO RATS

• The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a permanent organ of the SCO, which serves to promote cooperation of member states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

READ A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF SCO FROM MAINS PERSPECTIVE: https://www.iasgyan.in/blogs/sco-summit-an-analysis

Future of SCO

• The future of SCO would depend firstly on how it addresses the conflicting interests of member states and other regional and extra regional players in the region.
• Secondly, how cooperation and mutually advantageous equality would serve as the basis of the relations among member states and states with observer status.
• Thirdly, the question of expanding the organization would determine the scope and role of the SCO.
• Fourthly, the SCO's success in economic co-operation would be conditioned by the fear of smaller SCO members, in that smaller states might fear that their resources would become vulnerable to exploitation by larger members.
• The geographical configuration and political composition of the SCO reveal the asymmetry among member states. It consists of two major powers and four small states of Central Asia.
• If the SCO has to emerge as a successful regional organization, it should develop into an effective multilateral organization to address security and economic challenges in the region on the basis of mutually beneficial terms among its members.
• The future of SCO would depend firstly on how it addresses the conflicting interests of member states and other regional and extra regional players in the region.

ALL ABOUT SCO: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/sco

PRACTICE QUESTION Q. The future of SCO depends on how it addresses the conflicting interests of member states and other regional and extra regional players in the region. Elucidate.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/president-xi-jinping-will-attend-virtual-sco-summit-hosted-by-india-chinese-foreign-ministry/article67025859.ece