The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has traveled a journey of 18 years and followed its own rules of development.

SCO started with the mission of resolving regional conflicts and enhancing military mutual trust, focusing on combating the three forces of violent terrorism, national separatism and religious extremism as well as drug trafficking, and promoting economic and cultural cooperation as well. And tangible achievements have been made.

SCO itself represents a challenge to West-dominated regional models, since it opposes the cold-war mentality, unilateralism and power politics. The China-endorsed new cooperation philosophy of SCO has played a positive role in improving regional and global governance.

SCO is an extension of the China-Russia Strategic Partnership. And the two have been the dual-engines in driving SCO’s development, and their bilateral ties will decide how far this organization could go.

It’s beyond imagination that in a short span of a decade SCO, thanks to close interactions between China and Russia, could attain this high level of development.

Meanwhile, SCO faces numerous challenges due to a complex regional landscape and different needs of member states. And it’s not the will of China or Russia that SCO is to accommodate, but the interests of all. A community with a shared future for SCO will be established.

It’s fair to say that SCO is in line with the trend of the times and creates a new model of regional cooperation, which represents the interests of emerging markets and developing countries.

SCO’s greatest innovation lies in its philosophy. The five concepts of development, security, cooperation, civilization and global governance proposed by President Xi Jinping at the Qingdao Summit last year injected fresh impetus to the organization and set up a new system of rules for state-to-state relations and regional cooperation.

SCO is committed to the principle of consensus, with all member states treated as equal and each having a vote irrespective of their size. Although Central Asian countries lag far behind China and Russia in terms of national strength and development level, they have an equal say within the SCO framework. The Tajikistan President said during a visit to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , We have never felt disrespected interacting with China. Despite being such a large economy, China always treats small countries like us as equals.

It's worth mentioning that SCO could become a platform for strategic planning and coordination within the BRI framework. The two are mutually reinforcing, and SCO could help make BRI projects materialize.

SCO has nearly 20 meeting mechanisms (ministerial-level included) covering a wide range of areas, from economy, culture and people-to-people ties, to politics and security. So, this is helpful for BRI cooperation.

Central Asian countries have high hopes from BRI.

The land Silk Road is regarded as the world’s longest economic corridor with the greatest potential, connecting the vibrant Asia-Pacific region in the east, passing through the resource-abundant Central Asia, and linking the developed European economies in the west. So,  Central Asia is a vital part along the route.

These countries once enjoyed the prosperity of the ancient Silk Road, so they have high hopes of boosting their national economies through it. And what’s more, is that these land-locked countries are in desperate need of expanding international cooperation.

BRI can help them solve many real issues of building roads, bridges, tunnels and other transportation infrastructure. And then exports could be enhanced, economies boosted and living standards promoted. It’s indeed an attractive idea.

In fact, this region has witnessed the largest number of BRI cooperation programs and results.

The Tajikistan President once said that the China-Tajikistan tunnel is a model project, not only connecting roads but also enhancing friendship.

Financial connectivity could also facilitate trade and investment and reduce barriers. And since these Central Asian countries are still developing ones with less advanced markets and much government intervention, some problems need to be resolved urgently.

So the question now is how to elevate the quality of cooperation and better synergize development strategies of these countries and China?

BRI is different from regional organizations since it’s multi-tiered and multi-entity. And this could be seen from the the numerous sub-forums at various levels during the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. But they need to be integrated and organized. And it’s what SCO could offer with its many mechanisms.

As an inclusive organization, SCO has official member states, observers and dialogue partners in South Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia. So, BRI could invite in more entities through the SCO platform and make its benefits more inclusive.

Of course, SCO faces challenges because it has no military forces and sometimes suffers from capital shortage and the constraints of member states. For example, although India has joined SCO, it still doesn't accept BRI. But since it’s a member now, many issues are now possible to be discussed within the SCO framework.

We’re now undergoing changes unseen in 100 years with an unpredictable international landscape and mounting pressure from the West. Against this backdrop, SCO member states should consider how to enhance multilateral cooperation, promote economic growth and improve livelihoods in member states. And we look forward to more result-oriented cooperation and more achievements from SCO.

The author is director of Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, Vice President and Secretary-general of Council on China Russia Strategic Partnership of Coordination, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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