With the virtual summit chaired by New Delhi, the accession of Iran as the ninth member country of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was completed. China praised the Belt and Road Initiative and stigmatized the use of national security as an instrument of economic coercion. Sparks flew between India and Pakistan over terrorism.
New Delhi ( / Agencies) – With the virtual summit between heads of state and government, chaired by India, which was held today, Iran effectively became the ninth member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the forum for political and economic collaboration on security that brings together Russia, China, India, Pakistan and the countries of Central Asia. While, connected from Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi described the moment as “historic”, the Iranian flag was raised along with the others in front of the SCO headquarters in Beijing.
Founded by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization it had already hosted India and Pakistan in 2017. Now it was Tehran’s turn, soon to be followed by Belarus (which already has observer status along with Mongolia and Afghanistan). In fact, the Lukashenko government has signed a memorandum today that opens the way to full membership. There are also 14 countries that have signed agreements as “dialogue partners”: among them are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt.
The global ambitions of this body are evident and now go far beyond security cooperation. With the recognition of Iran’s membership, the SCO countries now cover an area of 36 million square kilometers, three-fifths of Eurasia, with a population of 3.4 billion people, about 43% of the world’s population. . They have a combined gross domestic product that would be around 30% of the world’s.
It is no coincidence that in his speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the partners to promote “pragmatic cooperation to accelerate economic recovery.” In an open polemic with Washington, he called for opposition to protectionism, unilateral sanctions and the use of national security as an instrument of economic coercion, rejecting attempts to “build walls” or disrupt industrial and supply chains. And he concluded by highlighting the close link between this vision and the “development strategies” proposed by the Belt and Road Initiative.
However, between the declarations of the summit and the concrete combination of the interests of one and the other, the distance in the SCO is still great. This was recalled during the summit by the host himself, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who -refocusing the forum on its main theme, security- referred in his inaugural speech to “some countries that use borders to give refuge to terrorists”, in clear allusion to Pakistan but also to China, which supports Islamabad and even a few days ago blocked a UN resolution on this matter. “The SCO countries – he added – should condemn this behaviour. There should be no double standard in terms of terrorism”. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif responded by stating that “any temptation to exploit terrorism for diplomatic gain must be resisted at all costs. And state terrorism must also be strongly denounced.”
Finally, today’s summit was the occasion for the return (albeit virtual) of Vladimir Putin to an international table after the tension that was experienced in Moscow due to the mutiny of the Wagner company, which was later controlled. The Russian president reassured the leaders about the stability and unity of the country, declared his willingness to strengthen ties with the SCO and supported the switch to local currencies for the settlement of commercial exchanges.
