The leaders of China, Russia or Iran meet for 48 hours to strengthen regional security
Historic Samarkand takes over from Dushanbe and hosts the 48-hour annual meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) aimed at strengthening regional security. The summit is being held amid international fears sparked by the war in Ukraine and will be the scene of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who is leaving his country for the first time since the start of the pandemic. . ‘The world is coming to Samarkand’ is the slogan of this edition of the SCO, in which Iran is no longer an observer country to become a full member of this organization. Next on the list of this kind of NATO in Asian version is Belarus. Chinese and Russians lead a union that serves to curb American ambitions in the area.
The SCO consists of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India. Other countries such as Belarus, Mongolia, Iran and Afghanistan (their role is not clear after the arrival of the Taliban emirate and therefore it will be one of the main topics on the agenda of the planned meetings between the heads of state) are observers and on the current edition, the presidents of Turkmenistan, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan are present as guests.
The presence of the latter two hangs in the air after the final hours of violent clashes between their armies that left more than a hundred dead. Two years after the last armed confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the South Caucasus is on fire again. The two countries hold each other responsible for this latest outbreak of violence. Yerevan claims that several border towns have been bombed by its neighbor and that it has responded to the provocation. Baku, for its part, says its military positions were hit first.
In recent weeks, there has also been speculation about the possible aid of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, an ally of Iran and Russia.
“Given the current international situation, this summit has special significance,” said Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser. “This will be the most important event of China’s head of state diplomacy on the eve of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, demonstrating the great importance China attaches to the SCO,” said China’s foreign spokeswoman, Mao Ning. , in the hours before the summit.
The leaders of Russia and China met in Beijing as early as February, shortly before the invasion of Ukraine began. Xi Jiping will use the meeting to promote his Global Security Initiative, a plan he presented in April in response to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) that includes the United States, Japan, Australia and India.
SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming told the media that the goal is for this organization to “play a more important role in maintaining security and stability” and “contribute to the development of a global management system in a fairer and more prudent direction.”
For analysts such as Raffaello Pantucci, of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and author of “Sinostan: China’s Inadtent Empire”, the summit shows “that the democratic order promoted by the West is not the only structure that exists ( ..) A As the West promotes a world order built around structures developed after World War II, those who lead the opposition to that model adopt their own institutions to demonstrate their options,” as reflected in a column published by the Nikkei Asia portal.
Source: La Verdad
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