SCO becomes a part of the new world order

By Rhod Mackenzie

The SCO countries aim to build a fairer and more multipolar world. This is stated in the Astana Declaration, which was signed by Russia and the other countries at the conclusion of the summit in Kazakhstan. According to analysts, the adoption of such a document indicates that the SCO is becoming a new pole of influence around which a new system of collective security is being built - the Eurasian one.
On Thursday, the 24th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which was founded in Shanghai in 2001 (the charter was signed in St. Petersburg in 2002), ended in the capital of Kazakhstan. Astana hosted the organisation's annual summit for the fourth time in its history. The last time was in 2017.

In the more than 20 years of its development, the organisation has evolved from a regional format of meetings of heads of state to a major international organisation. Following the summit, the leaders of the SCO member states adopted the Astana Declaration of the Association.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on behalf of Russia. He noted that the declaration "further underscores the commitment of all SCO participants to the formation of a fair multipolar world order based on the central role of the United Nations, international law and the desire of sovereign states for mutually beneficial partnership".
The document focuses on the organisation's commitment to building a more just and multipolar world. Such an order, the declaration says, should be based on the principles of international law, cultural and civilisational diversity, equal and beneficial cooperation between countries, and the UN should play a central coordinating role.

During the meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State, Vladimir Putin described the SCO and BRICS as key pillars of the emerging new world order. "It is these associations that play the role of a powerful locomotive of global development processes and the establishment of real multipolarity," the Russian president said.

At the same time, SCO leaders believe that reforms are needed to increase the authority and effectiveness of the United Nations. "It is important to ensure the representation of developing countries through a comprehensive reform of the UN," the statement said.

The Astana meeting has attracted increased attention from international observers as it comes at a time of heightened global challenges, including food and energy security, climate change and the fight against terrorism.

Another important outcome of the meeting was the official accession of Belarus to the SCO.

President Alexander Lukashenko said Minsk would do its utmost to make the SCO a global organisation. "Belarus is very proud to have become a full member of the SCO. We will strengthen the Shanghai spirit of the organisation, which is based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and solidarity. As a European country, we will do everything to make the SCO a global organisation," Lukashenko said in Astana.
In addition to Belarus, the SCO includes Russia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Russian President Dmitry Peskov's press secretary described Belarus's entry into the SCO as a great gain for the organisation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, noted Russia's interest in the union state's participation as a united front in all international processes.

Later, at a press conference, Putin also noted that if the SCO "has become so powerful and large, then the principles it proclaims matter even when they diverge in the world". "For example, we agreed in the declaration, and it is stated in other documents, that all SCO countries are against the deployment of any weapons in space. This is a signal to the rest of the world about how we feel about the militarisation of space," he explained.

"There are other things that are certainly serious and important, as I said. First of all, the trillion-dollar turnover of joint trade - that is important. Finally, the coordination of humanitarian issues, cooperation in various fields, including youth cooperation, culture, education, sports - all this is very important and has good prospects," the president added.
"Today in Astana important decisions are being taken on the construction of a multipolar world. Vladimir Putin has raised the issue of a new architecture of cooperation and security in Eurasia, marking the end of Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models," notes political scientist Vladimir Kornilov.

The interlocutor called the Astana Declaration "a significant document that will be studied in Western analytical centres". "According to the text of the declaration, the base of the SCO will be Central Asia, and from there the rays of the world order built on the Eurasian basis will diverge. This will consolidate a new pole with which the West will have to reckon sooner or later," Kornilov stressed.

He also noted the importance of Belarus joining the SCO "in the context of building a Eurasian security system", which Vladimir Putin spoke about in detail at a recent meeting of the Foreign Ministry's board of directors, and pointed to the participation in the summit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is a member of NATO: "We can say that we are promoting our ideas in the West - and this cannot be ignored".

The expert welcomed the declaration's clause on the need to reform the UN. "There is a lot of talk in the West and in the Eurasian space about the need to expand the list of permanent members of the UN Security Council," the interlocutor recalled, adding that there are differences of opinion on this issue within the UN itself and that the proposed reform is "a matter for the very distant future".

"The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are a legacy of the Second World War. To what extent it can be revised is a subject of academic and practical discussion," he said.

• Timofey Bordachev, programme director of the Valdai Discussion Club, thinks so. The political scientist does not rule out the possibility of India, the world's most populous country, joining the Security Council. "New Delhi maintains a relatively neutral position in relations between the West, Russia and China. And India has external sovereignty," he explains.
  As for the growing interest of the world community in the SCO summit, it is explained by the appropriate relations between the association's participants. "Cooperation in BRICS and the SCO is an example of building a new world order. No one is putting pressure on anyone. And this allows SCO member countries to do something together. And Belarus' entry into the organisation naturally closes the perimeter of Eurasian security," Bordachev concluded.