A new Silk Road beckons

SCO: The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) was in the headlines this week with its summit meeting held at Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Greater co-operation over energy and security, particularly terrorism, is reported to have dominated the talks between the leaders of the six nations that form this new group of nations which the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayaev said should proceed to form "an energy club".

The membership of the SCO comprises China, the world's largest consumer of energy today, Russia, which has one of the largest reserves of fossil fuel, and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the four small Central Asian countries rich in oil and gas reserves.

Western news services see in the rise of the SCO's importance since its forming six years ago as a new challenge to US domination of the world, and significantly Russian President Vladimir Putin used the summit to call for an end to the present uni-polar approach to international affairs.

Interestingly, when the BBC news anchor last Thursday asked a Russian commentator whether the SCO could be described as a "club with a bomb", as one observer had described it, due to its huge energy reserves and two members that are nuclear powers, the Russian was quick to respond that no one calls NATO a club with a bomb when three of its members were nuclear powers.

Clout and influence

The growing attraction of the SCO was evident by the number of countries lining up seeking membership. This includes Iran, India and Pakistan, as well as, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who addressed the SCO summit as an observer, was critical of US policies which he saw as dangerously threatening the balance of security in the world, particularly for its missile defence plans. He told the summit that US plans for a missile defence shield "concerns most of the continent, both Asia and the SCO members".

Western observers see the SCO as spanning a strategically important region rich in oil and gas reserves that is gradually gaining clout and influence. The concerns of the West about the emerging strength of the SCO may not be misplaced when one considers Kazakh President Nazarbayev's statement that the region's Soviet-era network of gas and oil pipelines could form the basis for an Asian energy market, - and that Kazakhstan had already drawn up a draft strategy for an SCO energy club.

He told the summit that "a mechanism of meetings of energy ministers from the SCO member and observer states should function in the context of the idea of an energy club, and that this might become one of the main elements of an Asian energy strategy."

The emerging strategy of SCO could be seen with the Kazakh President also speaking of the importance of increased co-operation between the SCO and the European Union, particularly over a trans-continental transport corridor "which could be a new manifestation of the traditions of the Great Silk Road".

BBC's correspondent in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Natalia Antelava saw these annual summits as becoming increasingly influential, and the alliance turning into a prestigious regional club with global ambitions, with the main message of this summit clearly being that "the world is bigger than the West".

VOA correspondent Peter Fedynsky reporting from the Kyrgyz capital, saw the summit's call for a multilateral approach to global problems is an indirect reaction to American influence, around the world. Not surprisingly VOA revealed US concerns about the SCO when it reported more of what Russian President Putin said, particularly his use of the term "energy club"; and his highlighting the possibility of linking European and Asian trade corridors and urging the development of information technologies among the member states.

In addition, Mr. Putin called for the establishment of appropriate financial institutions. In an indirect-but-clear reference to American influence around the globe, Mr. Putin again called for the establishment of a multi-polar world, VOA said.

The Bishkek Declaration issued after the summit has the multilateral approach written into it, with much of it devoted to security, which is broadly interpreted as a sound global economy, a reduction in poverty, as well as economic, ecological and energy security.

The Bishkek Declaration also highlights the need to fight terrorism and singles out the negative regional influence of Afghanistan's illegal drug trade. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, an invited SCO guest, acknowledged the problem in his remarks to summit leaders.

Anti-terror

Of particular interest to countries such as Sri Lanka are the joint military exercises in Russia by the members of SCO held after the Bishkek Summit, which a Chinese observer has described as a milestone of SCO anti-terror co-operation.

According to Xinhua, the joint exercises are intended to show the will and determination of SCO members in action to crack down on the "three evil forces" - terrorism, separatism and extremism, and face new threats and challenges together. The exercises will bring shared experience in three aspects: to jointly counter terrorist attacks, joint decision making in planning anti-terror operations and exchanging ideas on anti-terror preparations and operations...

About 4,000 troops and 80 aircraft from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan participated in the joint exercises carried out first in China's Urumqi, and then in Russia's Chelyabinsk in the Urals.

The importance of the SCO for countries such as Sri Lanka was noted by the JVP leader, Somawansa Amarasinghe in an interview published in the latest issue of "Target", the magazine published by BT Option that focuses on development in Sri Lanka.

Speaking on the increasing international pressures on the President and Government regarding the situation in the North and resolving the ethnic crisis, Mr. Amarasinghe asked why Sri Lanka should be trapped in the current international pressures.

He said: "Now, the world is changing. We see very clearly that there are two international communities now. That is favourable for countries like Sri Lanka. One, which is trying to give life to a process which is already dying. There were empires previously such as the Roman Empire, which is now dead.

The British Empire is dead. However, there's another empire and they're the people who are pressurizing the governments in countries such as Sri Lanka.

I'm talking about the Washington Empire. The organizations or institutions propping up this imperialism, the WTO, World Bank, IMF, all these institutions are being challenged at the moment. The uni-polar world is changing. Now the end of that has started.

At the moment there are institutions such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and there is a possibility to work with them. Look East, there are opportunities and possibilities to work with them and get out of this net. We need not be trapped.

We have been following their (West, World Bank etc) advice and obeying them in other words for the last 30 years. We are in the 60th year after gaining independence and for half that period we have been pursuing the very same so-called free-market economic policies. What did we gain?

Today, this is an indebted country with no foreign reserves and the exchange rate is unsuitable for our country. The dollar is coming down when you compare it with the Euro and the Rouble, so why should we get trapped?

Why don't we have bilateral relationships with the countries that respect our sovereignty and independence?"

This is certainly an interesting thought for policy makers and strategists in economic and defence policy and foreign relations to ponder.

The attention paid to the SCO Summit this year by the international media, and the possibilities it holds for emerging nations, already well judged by India and Pakistan, calls for serious reconsideration of the emphasis in our international and broader regional relations.