High-speed SCO: the new format will unite 30 countries and organizations

Laos will receive the status of an SCO partner, and 30 countries and organizations will take part in the September summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on July 15 following a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Mongolia may also become a member of the SCO, experts say. The Ukrainian crisis was not the focus of diplomats' attention, but Sergey Lavrov told reporters that the third round of talks with Moscow was now not mentioned in Kiev's statements. According to him, the Russian Federation will cope with the new restrictions if they are introduced. The prospects for negotiations on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine and the future of the SCO are described in the Izvestia article.

What have the SCO Foreign Ministers agreed on?

The meeting of the SCO foreign ministers took place in the Chinese city of Tianjin, 123 km south of Beijing. The venue of the summit has great historical significance — since the Ming Dynasty, Tianjin has been called the "southern gateway" to the capital of China. There are also ties with Russia: after the Civil War, a large Russian community was formed here.

The weather also contributed to fruitful negotiations: it rained at night, so there was no unbearable heat. The meeting of the SCO foreign Ministers is a prelude to the summit of heads of state, which will be held in a month and a half. China is ready to use this meeting as an opportunity to support the "Shanghai Spirit" — the desire to "build a common home based on solidarity and mutual trust, peace and tranquility, prosperity and development." The Russian side strongly supports China's efforts to implement its ambitious action plan, the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier.

At one time, it seemed that the SCO was overshadowed by the rapidly and actively developing BRICS. Despite the fact that the SCO, unlike the BRICS, had and still has quite a sufficient working infrastructure (headquarters, secretariat, and so on), the only really functioning body, in fact, was the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure. And even then, the Chinese side created parallel organizations in the framework of cooperation with the countries of Central Asia without the participation of the Russian Federation, Andrei Vinogradov, deputy head and leading researcher at the Center for Socio–Economic Research of China at the ICSA RAS, told Izvestia.

— The expansion of the SCO that has taken place over the past 10 years has rather posed new problems for the member countries. As a result, their main foreign policy efforts, in my opinion, have shifted towards BRICS as a more important platform for coordinating efforts and developing cooperation," the expert noted.

Vladimir Shapovalov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Politics and History at Moscow State University, sees the situation differently. Now the SCO is a key platform for the formation of political communications in Eurasia, he told Izvestia.

— It began as a platform for dialogue between China, on the one hand, and Russia and the post-Soviet countries, on the other hand. We have settled various political issues, including territorial ones. We remember that in the late Soviet period, there were difficult relations between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. In the process of development, the SCO has gone far beyond the organization of five states," the political scientist emphasized.

Nevertheless, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is actively developing. For example, Laos will receive the status of a partner in the SCO, and the SCO+ format, which will be attended by about 30 countries and multilateral associations, will operate at the summit on August 31 — September 1, the Russian Foreign Minister said.

"Our organization objectively contributes to the creation of an architecture of equal security throughout Eurasia, and we see the Great Eurasian Partnership based on the cooperation of multilateral organizations operating in the region as its socio—economic foundation," Sergey Lavrov stressed.

The ministers also signed draft documents that the leaders of their countries will consider at the upcoming summit.

— The preparation of draft agreements on the establishment of a universal center for countering security challenges and threats in Tashkent and an anti-drug center in Dushanbe is nearing completion. It is planned to deploy a structure to combat organized crime in Bishkek. We have spoken in favor of further expanding cooperation between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and external players," the Russian Foreign Minister said.

What is the future of the SCO

Currently, 10 countries are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.: Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Two countries, Afghanistan and Mongolia, have observer status in the SCO.

Another 14 countries belong to the category of dialogue partners: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Sri Lanka.

Several countries have applied to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in various formats and a number of others intend to raise the status of their participation in it, Zhang Ming, Secretary General of the organization in 2022-2024, told Izvestia earlier.

According to Iran's national coordinator at the SCO secretariat, Mehrdad Kiaei, at least five countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka - have requested observer status instead of their existing dialogue partner. Bangladesh also wanted to become an observer, and the partner stage can be avoided in this case. Andrey Vinogradov emphasizes that Mongolia is likely to receive membership, as it has been waiting for this for a long time.

The changing geopolitical situation in the world, as well as the recent difficulties in the functioning of the BRICS, objectively contribute to enhancing the SCO's role in coordinating efforts to counter the anti-Russian and anti-Chinese policies of the United States and its allies. At the same time, the importance of the economic component in the SCO agenda and coordination of efforts in this area is dramatically increasing (especially for Russia, China and Iran).

— It is not for nothing that the leaders of these states (as well as India and other countries that are members or observers of the SCO) We have already confirmed our participation in the summit, which will be held in Tianjin on August 31 — September 1. Let us remind you that they did not attend the BRICS summit in Brazil," Vinogradov said.

It is hoped that the discussion of pressing issues at the SCO summit in China will be fruitful enough. Especially within the framework of the Interbank Association and the Energy Club. Nevertheless, the expert urged not to pin too much hope on the SCO summit. For China (currently the backbone country of the SCO, along with Russia) This is just one of the platforms for foreign policy and foreign economic activity.

Vladimir Shapovalov draws attention to the fact that the SCO gathers key authors of the Eurasian space and has constructive relations with many other countries of the world. At the moment, we can fully say that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is one of the key actors in Eurasia and in the global arena as a whole.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine

Despite the fact that the Ukrainian settlement was not in the focus of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov was expected to make new statements regarding further dialogue with Kiev. The third round of negotiations with Russia is now not mentioned by Ukraine, and the composition of the delegation is also changing, the Russian Foreign Minister said at the final press conference.

— If they declare that the format has been exhausted, it means, in addition to neglecting their citizens, they also do not want to negotiate. Probably, the Macrons, Starmers, Ursula von der Leyen and other Scoundrels forbid them to do this again, when all these characters simply unanimously demand to urgently pump Ukraine with additional offensive weapons," Sergey Lavrov said.

He stressed that Russia will be able to cope with the new Western sanctions. This is how the minister answered a question about the statement by US President Donald Trump to impose 100% duties on Russia and its trading partners if Moscow and Washington do not reach an agreement on a settlement in Ukraine within 50 days.

— And already an unprecedented number of sanctions have been announced against us. We are coping, and I have no doubt that we will," the Russian Foreign Minister said.

The Minister stressed that Russia is bringing to the attention of the United States its position that the format of negotiations has not been exhausted.

"If these clarifications, which we have repeatedly conveyed to our American colleagues, including at my meetings on the sidelines of ASEAN events, are simply ignored or not reported to President Trump, it is difficult to judge what is behind this," Lavrov told reporters.