The SCO Seeks a New Type of Geopolitics to Promote Peace

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has just completed its 5th Annual Summit held last week in Shanghai, but this important organization is receiving scant attention in the West. It is an organization consisting of Russia, China and the four Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

In addition to the six member countries, four other neighboring countries, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, and India, have been granted observer status, and at least two, Iran and Pakistan would like very much to join. However, the SCO is unlikely to admit Iran as a member until its problem with the West involving uranium enrichment is settled. Likewise, it is reluctant to admit Pakistan unless India also joins at the same time in view of the long standing conflict the two countries have had in the Kashmir territories. All of these countries are important to the SCO efforts to deal with radical Islamic militancy in the area and the flow of illicit drugs coming out of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan also was invited to address the conference.

The main purposes of the SCO are: " strengthening mutual trust...; developing..effective cooperation in political affairs, the economy and trade, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transportation, environmental protection and other fields; working together to maintain regional peace, security and stability; and promoting the creation of a new international political and economic order featuring democracy, justice and rationality."

The Declaration on the Fifth Anniversary of SCO Summit says: "the SCO owes its smooth growth to its consistent adherence to the "Shanghai Spirit" of "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for multi-civilizations and pursuit of common development". . The "Shanghai Spirit" is therefore of critical importance to the international community's pursuit of a new and non-confrontational model of international relations, a model that calls for discarding the Cold War mentality and transcending ideological differences... SCO is committed to enhancing strategic stability, strengthening the international regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and upholding order in international law, and will contribute its share to accomplishing these important missions."

Western media seem to almost completely ignored the SCO and its just completed annual summit in Shanghai June 14-16. My search of www.cnn.com reveals not a single reference to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. I did hear a TV reference to it on CNN Europe, but it referred to the SCO as a "regional security organization" without even using its name. Howard French in the New York Times, calls it the "Shagnhai Club, once obscure, now attracts wide interest", but the Times buries it quite deep in its World News.

Much of the cooperative work of SCO countries involves economic development, energy production and distribution, and building infrastructure. F. William Engdahl explains clearly how the U.S. is being outflanked in Eurasia energy politics. While the United States runs up massive deficits and becomes bogged down militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now threatens Iran in its attempt to change regimes and acquire American hegemony over the Mideast oil fields, Russia and China take a different course. Both have new wealth, Russia from sale of energy, and China from exports to the U.S. The SCO countries are expanding energy production and distribution with new pipelines throughout Eurasia. The European Commission is preparing the draft of an agreement to integrate the energy markets of Russia and the European Union. Direct oil pipelines from Kazakhstan and Russia will soon be linked directly to China.

China is investing billions of dollars to build infrastructure in the oil rich countries of Africa and Central Asia as well and many other places around the globe. These projects include roads, railroads, airports, telecommunications, schools, hospitals, cement factories, etc. While the U.S. is losing friends, China is acquiring new respect.

Many in the U.S. are apprehensive about China and Russia as possible military threats, but this is quite contrary to all that the SCO countries have done and said. True, they have conducted joint military exercises and plan more for the future, but they openly state that they do not seek confrontation with anyone, nor would they ever try to match the U.S. in its massive military might. Of course, like all countries, they will act in their perceived own interests.

In contrast, the United States spends as much on the military and its wars, as the rest of the world combined. Ralph Vartabedian reports in the Los Angeles Times on the "race" going on in the U.S. to build new nuclear bombs. The race though is between two laboratories, Livermore in California and Los Alamos in New Mexico. Congress has wisely (?) prohibited the new bombs from exceeding the power of the old ones they will replace, roughly 27 times the power of the one dropped on Hiroshima. The eager young scientist see this as a big "game", and are competing with each other to develop the best new WMD's with the latest technology.

No, the greater danger to the United States is the possibility of its own economic collapse, but the SCO does not seek this either, as it would bring down the economic system of the whole world as well. Let's just hope and pray that the U.S. and its "Willing Coalition" doesn't precipitate a nuclear war first.

The SCO seeks to cooperate with the rest of the world. I would hope that the U.S. government and the American mass media can open their eyes and begin to spread the "Shanghai Spirirt" around the world.