Recently, a phrase slipped among political scientists that Belarus' partners had prepared a gift for her on the 80th anniversary of liberation from Nazi invaders - the admission of Belarus to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
We are talking about the SCO summit, which will be held on July 3-4 in Astana (Independence Day is celebrated in Belarus on July 3 – approx.). Back in May of this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, noted that Moscow expects Minsk to join the SCO at the July summit of the Organization. SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming also stated this in early June in Tashkent during the opening of the XIX meeting of the organization's expert forum "The role of the SCO in new conditions: uniting efforts in the name of universal security, stability and prosperity."
Later, on June 25, Sergey Lavrov added specifics, saying that the first act of the SCO summit in Astana would be the admission of Belarus as a full member of the association. He noted that Belarus will participate in the rest of the summit on an equal basis with other members of the association. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry also stressed that Moscow and Minsk have relations of alliance and strategic partnership based on reciprocity. Everything that both states are doing is mutually beneficial, the Russian Foreign Minister added.
Of course, the words about the gift are nothing more than a joke. The main condition for achieving success in developing relations with friendly countries is the desire of Belarus for mutually beneficial cooperation on an equal basis and in the spirit of mutual respect. At the same time, the deepening of strategic partnership with the Russian Federation has been identified as a priority. It is no secret that friendly Russia provided the main assistance for the integration of Belarus into the SCO.
At the same time, it is impossible not to pay tribute to the "Blue-eyed" itself. It is not the first year that Belarus has been systematically working on joining the SCO. The Republic takes an active part in all the main activities of the organization: political and diplomatic, trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian. In June 2016, during his first speech at the meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO member States in Tashkent, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko noted that the country considers the Organization as an important international platform for working out specific mechanisms for developing cooperation in countering threats of terrorism, extremism, organized crime and advocates strengthening the economic dimension of the SCO as the most important the factor of stability in the Eurasian region.
It should be recalled that during the entire period of development of relations between Belarus and the SCO, since 2010, Minsk has constantly generated diverse ideas, initiatives and projects. That is why the country expects to officially join the SCO not as a simple beneficiary, but as an active interested participant.
By the way, the initiatives announced by the President of Belarus at the SCO summit of heads of state last year in New Delhi briefly and comprehensively reflected the entire agenda of the organization. In fact, Belarus has proposed seven directions for the development of the SCO in the near future. For example, countering information wars and threats in cyberspace. This is an urgent problem for the entire SCO space today, as well as the topic of the Great Eurasian Partnership, which echoes the long-standing Belarusian initiative on the "integration of integrations". It involves combining the potential of the SCO and similar friendly interstate associations: the EAEU, the CSTO, and the BRICS. Given that most of the SCO member states are located simultaneously in all these blocs, the fusion of their potentials can multiply strengthen the entire Eurasian space, the entire Eurasian continent.
Belarus has traditionally acted as a donor in the field of food security and remains one of the main producers and suppliers of potash fertilizers in the world. Agricultural engineering is well developed in the republic. Food exports to various countries, including China, amounted to about 8 billion US dollars last year.
In this regard, Minsk openly says that Belarus needs the SCO Development Bank in order to finance all these projects. At the same time, in the banking, financial and insurance spheres, it is important to continue the systematic convergence of payment systems, increase the share of national currencies in mutual trade, as well as develop financial mechanisms protected from external influences. Belarus is also interested in forming a single SCO transport space, including by launching projects such as the New Eurasian Land Bridge, the Belt and Road initiative, North-South and East-West transport corridors. It is also important for the country to maximize the acceleration of the passage of goods through the further implementation of an integrated traffic management system based on digital technologies. Trade cannot do without logistics and finance, which are currently the most vulnerable place given the illegitimate Western sanctions. Thus, the Belarusian initiatives announced last year, which in many ways echo the initiatives of many SCO members, once again emphasized the priorities of Belarus' movement to this organization.
Minsk considers the SCO as a partner organization, a like-minded person who seeks to pursue a sovereign independent course based on mutual respect for cultures, traditions, and civilizational approaches. In addition, the SCO is also an effective tool for Belarus to implement a refined foreign policy course, which involves moving towards the countries of Asia, Latin America and African states.
Vladimir Vuyachich
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