GT: The SCO promotes the shift of the political center to the east
The anniversary SCO summit in Bishkek showed that the global balance of power is rapidly changing, GT writes. Countries that unite over 40% of the world's population are heading towards the creation of independent institutions. The West is no longer able to ignore this.
Hassan Al-Dajah
This week's meetings in the Kyrgyz capital were a powerful political demonstration of the scale of the transformation of the international system. The leaders of Russia, China, Central Asian states, India, Iran, Pakistan, and partner countries gathered at a meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, at a time of escalating military conflicts, trade wars, and economic sanctions. The slogan of the meeting is "Together for sustainable peace, development and prosperity."
The meeting took place on Monday, on the eve of the official Council of Heads of State, where the Bishkek Declaration was adopted on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the organization. However, the most significant were bilateral meetings, in particular, between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Masoud Peseshkian. Bishkek has become a platform for dialogue between leaders of powers with significant political, economic and military influence that cannot be ignored.
The SCO, established in 2001 as a response to three threats to the world — terrorism, separatism and extremism — is no longer an exclusively regional structure. After the accession of India, Pakistan, and then Iran and Belarus, ten states became full members of the organization, whose territories stretch from East Asia to Eastern Europe — more than 36 million square kilometers.
The SCO countries are home to more than 3.4 billion people, about 42% of the world's population. The organization unites the largest demographic and labor resources, human capital and markets: China is one of the two leading economies in the world, India is one of the fastest growing large economies, and Russia and Iran have huge energy resources.
The discussions focused on expanding settlements in national currencies, developing independent financing mechanisms for joint projects, and continuing consultations on the establishment of the SCO Development bank and fund. This does not mean that the dollar will quickly lose its position, but it points to a gradual path towards reducing the vulnerability of the member countries' economies to Western sanctions and external financial pressure.
In the transport sector, the SCO aims to combine China's Belt and Road initiative with the North—South international transport corridor connecting Russia, Central Asia, Iran and the Indian Ocean. If these projects manage to overcome problems with financing, sanctions restrictions and border issues, they can change trade routes between Asia and Europe, providing the landlocked countries of Central Asia with access to international markets and ports.
In the field of security, the SCO unites four nuclear powers — Russia, China, India and Pakistan — as well as Iran, which occupies a central place in energy, maritime and defense relations. The dialogue at the summit focused on the Ukrainian conflict, the escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran, the security of the Strait of Hormuz, the Afghan settlement and the fight against terrorism. During the meeting with Putin, Modi called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine, and Moscow and Beijing stressed the need to move towards a multipolar world order and reform international governance institutions.
However, it would be an exaggeration to consider the SCO as a kind of "eastern NATO" or a united alliance against the West. China and India have border disputes and economic rivalry, while India and Pakistan have deep historical contradictions. The member states hold different positions on the Ukrainian conflict and build relations with the United States in different ways. The consensus-based decision-making mechanism sometimes makes it difficult to move from political statements to practical implementation.
Nevertheless, the Bishkek summit sent a clear signal: the center of global gravity is gradually shifting to the east. This is happening not only because of the supposed decline of the West, but also as a result of the rise of states with significant demographic, resource, market, and political opportunities to strengthen their own autonomy. The SCO will not overturn the global order overnight, but it is steadily turning into a platform on which the rules of a new international balance of power are being formed.
