The SCO's second phase of membership expansion was marked by Iran's admission, which increases the group's worldwide influence: expert
On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to move in the correct path and strengthen their bonds of friendship and trust while reiterating the historical trend toward peace, progress, and win-win cooperation.
Xi made the comments on Tuesday while participating in the SCO meeting via video connection. On the same day that Iran officially joined, the organization made a symbolic gesture that, according to observers, signaled the SCO's second wave of growth. According to analysts, adding new members can strengthen the organization to withstand the effects of the constantly shifting international environment as well as increase the SCO's worldwide influence.
Observers added that given the hostile actions of the West, particularly the United States' increased efforts to split the SCO, it is now important for the member nations of the organization to foster greater mutual trust and dialogue as well as cooperation on a wider range of issues, including those pertaining to the economy. They criticized Western media's "narrow-minded" image of the SCO, an organization that prioritizes wide-ranging collaboration, and scoffed at the hype that the Russia-Ukraine issue may overshadow the meeting.
During the speech on video, Xi emphasized the need for the SCO nations to improve their strategic communication and coordination, resolve conflicts via discussion, and swap competitiveness for cooperation.
"We ought to really appreciate one another's fundamental goals and pressing issues, as well as wholeheartedly encourage one another's efforts at growth and renewal. While deciding on our foreign policy, we should act autonomously while keeping in mind the broad and long-term interests of our area. We must watch out for outside efforts to incite a new cold war or camp-based conflict in our region. We must vehemently oppose any meddling in our domestic affairs and the incitement of "color revolutions" by any nation, regardless of the justification "Xi addressed the meeting in a video address.
He said that we must uphold regional stability and national security. It is our shared obligation to keep our region safe and secure. China is prepared to collaborate with all parties in order to implement the Global Security Initiative, encourage political settlement of international and regional hotspots, and promote the resolution of international disputes through dialogue and consultation. This will help to create a strong security shield in our region.
Xi said that the SCO nations prioritize effective collaboration and quicken economic recovery. Increasing economic growth is a job that all the nations in the area must undertake. China is prepared to collaborate with all parties in order to implement the Global Development Initiative, maintain the correct course of economic globalization, oppose protectionism, unilateral sanctions, and the overstretching of national security, and reject efforts to erect barriers, decouple from trade, and break up supply chains. In order to ensure that more development advantages are distributed more equally across people worldwide, we need increase the size of the pie of win-win collaboration.
According to Xi, we must strengthen the link between high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and other nations' development plans as well as regional cooperation projects.
Increased influence
The SCO summit was practically presided over on Tuesday by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who announced that Iran has officially joined the group. He also praised Belarus for signing the Memorandum of Commitment to become a member of the SCO.
In his remarks, Xi expressed his congratulations to the two nations.
Iran has now joined the group as its ninth member.
Iranian Ambassador to China Mohsen Bakhtiar and SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming both took part in the event commemorating Iran's SCO membership. Tuesday saw the raising of the Iranian flag at the SCO Secretariat complex in Beijing.
The SCO has a strict admissions procedure, and Iran first applied to join the group 15 years ago.
The addition of Iran to the organization is symbolic as it ushers in a second cycle of SCO growth, according to Zhu Yongbiao, head of the Institute for Afghanistan Studies at Lanzhou University, who spoke to the Global Times on Tuesday.
According to Zhu, the organization now spans a large number of nations, from Central Asia to South Asia and now West Asia. This will increase the organization's worldwide impact and improve its capacity to survive challenging global conditions.
The SCO encourages collaboration to preserve security; supports discussion in addressing disagreements, which is useful in resolving many regional and international issues; and, as a result, its influence is expanding amid the complex world environment. Director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies Sun Zhuangzhi Social Sciences, on Tuesday, informed the Global Times.
Also, the group's members have created a novel kind of fruitful alliance, and Sun said that the group is not exclusive and is willing to work with other worldwide organizations.
According to Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, topics like deepening security cooperation, jointly offsetting the negative influence of geopolitical tussles, improving internal coordination among member states, and accelerating economic recovery are also anticipated to be next-stage major issues for the SCO.
Qian said that the organization's growth has faced a number of difficulties, such as the US seeking to weaken the organization's cohesion by utilizing its Indo-Pacific strategy to push a wedge between China and its neighbors and Washington moving to pull over India. According to Qian, other problems including Afghanistan, the ongoing confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, and terrorism all present difficulties for the SCO.
Earlier this month, Modi paid a state visit to the US and had a meeting with President Joe Biden. The US intensified attempts to enlist India to play a larger role in its so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy, which is obviously intended to restrict China, during Modi's visit.
It is imperative for SCO members to improve internal coordination and mutual trust as well as to promote collaboration in addressing problems of shared concern, according to Qian, who noted that Western nations are intensifying their efforts to divide SCO members.
Nurlan Akkoshikarov, the permanent representative of Kazakhstan to the SCO Secretariat, said during a Monday speech at the 11th World Peace Forum at Tsinghua University in Beijing that SCO members are discussing reducing their reliance on the US dollar and developing their own system of currency circulation in order to achieve economic independence.
Akkoshikarov pointed out that the SCO may advance economic cooperation after resolving its political issues. Akkoshikarov asserted that the BRICS nations provided a door for learning, and that this is a path for Shanghai-based bank, and it's probable that the SCO may do the same.
The Ukraine-Russian conflict is not the main concern
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, reportedly welcomed Iran's admission to membership in the SCO and stressed the significance of helping Teheran become used to all of the organization's procedures. Putin stated at the SCO's virtual online conference that Moscow is in favor of Belarus joining the group as soon as feasible.
Overall, the Russian president highlighted that one cannot help but be happy with the SCO's expanding influence and power as well as the growing interest of other nations and international organizations in the organization's actions. "Many of them hope to engage in a fair discourse with the SCO and are thinking about joining its efforts. They want to collaborate with us, they have faith in us, and they want to be our friends, the Russian president said, according to TASS.
The summit's potential impact on the continuing Russia-Ukraine issue has received much of the attention in Western media. It is the first global summit in which Putin has taken part since the Wagner rebellion, and according to the Associated Press, "the platform [SCO] is more crucial than ever for Moscow, which is keen to demonstrate that the West was unsuccessful in isolating it.
The summit's potential impact on the continuing Russia-Ukraine issue has received much of the attention in Western media. It is the first international meeting in which Putin has taken part since the Wagner rebellion, and according to the Associated Press, "the platform [SCO] is more crucial than ever for Moscow, which is anxious to demonstrate that the West has failed to isolate it."
The releases, in Qian's opinion, demonstrated the constrained perspective that certain Western media had of the SCO. "Members of the SCO will discuss the conflict between Russia and Ukraine since it affects the entire world. The organization will instead concentrate more of its efforts on fostering multilateral cooperation, taking a more active part in regional and global governance, and supporting its growth in a new and complicated context. Thus, the conflict won't be a hot topic "Qain added.
In a May interview with RIA Novosti, Zhang Ming stated that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's member nations are prepared to establish enabling circumstances to appropriately address the Ukraine crisis and that they are continuing to make their own efforts to address the country's humanitarian crisis.
None of the other SCO members are directly involved in the issue, so the group can only work to mediate it and attempt to stop it from spreading and getting worse, according to Sun.
According to Sun, SCO members are working to counteract the war's harmful effects on other nations by enhancing cooperation in the areas of commerce, energy, transportation, and investment, in contrast to the unilateral sanctions and escalation of the conflict by Western nations.
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