The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), originally called the Shanghai Five formed in 1996, has grown into a larger organization with a bigger role to play in the Central Asian region. Reports suggested that it is being used by Russia and China to curb U.S. access to the region’s vast energy resources and yet it very legitimate if that was the question, says experts. It is currently cooperating with Iran on several issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and has invited Iran to join the group. The SCO is rising and it is to be watched.

The official purpose of the alliance is to form a comprehensive network of cooperation among the member states, including military security, economic development, trade and cultural exchange. Its present members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Will the SCO enlarge its frontiers and increase its role in the near future? That is the question that has been raised by western analysts on the rise of the organization lately.

The SCO has in the past, not been given prominence by western media or politicians. It was overlooked as a regional organization without political clout, one that could be destroyed with a possible challenge between Russia and China. But since the recent change in regimes in the former countries that formed the USSR namely Ukraine, Georgia, the SCO decided to take on some political roles and this has now become one of the direction that the organization intend to take in the long run.

According to Zhang Deguang the Secretary General of the SCO, the grouping’s basic goals are: strengthening good neighborhood, mutual trust and friendship among member-states; promoting cooperation in trade, economic, scientific and technical, cultural, humanitarian and many other spheres; preservation of peace, security and stability in the region; assistance in formation of democratic, fair and rational new international order.

This speaks for itself on the very intention of the SCO, which is bound to become stronger and to play an active role in international forums. The SCO will become Russia’s and China’s mouth piece on the international political and diplomatic stage while it will also foster cooperation with nations like Iran and possibly create an economic zone that would evolve into a new community in the world. The SCO could also become a new EU but with more political strength and a stronger military role, experts said.

With the growing militarization of America’s foreign policy, Russia and China felt that it was necessary to have a new organization that would counter balance the Nato which is dominated by the U.S. Working with Nato is to accept a one way route which is imposed by Washington and it includes the no negotiations strategy with Muslim nations that are falling victims to the U.S. greed. With the existence of a new organization that is pushing for a new international order with a better rational than that of the Americans, the Nato and Washington will have plenty on their hands to deal with.

Seeking a rational new international order is in direct conflict with the imposition of the American international order. America is trying to impose democracy across the world and was so far unchallenged in this policy. With the SCO turning more political and with countries like Iran joining the grouping, the SCO will pose a greater challenge to the Americans. The grouping is also preparing for the rise of the new Japan under Shinzo Abe who is being supported by the Americans and some European nations to revamp his country and turn it into a militarized nation.

“The SCO decided to establish two permanent bodies: the Secretariat and the Regional antiterrorist structure. The capital of China was chosen as a place for the Secretariat''s location mainly because of that reason, that the SCO itself was born in China. At the same time, it was also an indication of respect and hope of other member-states towards China,” said the Sec General in an interview to "World Affairs" in 2004.

He added that the foreign policy activity on preparation to the inauguration of the Secretariat begun in 2003. Since then there were more than ten rounds of intense and substantial multilateral consultations. Their results were reflected in a number of resolutions and legislative acts, adopted at the Moscow summit of six states in late May 2003 and at the six-sided meeting of Heads of Governments in Beijing in late September this year. The Chinese government declared its gratuitous granting the office building to the Secretariat, which played an important role in speeding up the preparatory spadework to launch the Secretariat.

This explains the importance that China place on the SCO and it also shows the extent to which Beijing is going to go for cooperation among Central Asian nations, particularly the large nation of Russia. China like Russia is seeking the same goal for the region, namely promote practical cooperation among member-states especially in deepening of cooperation in the field of security and economy, and develop external contacts and cooperation on a scheduled basis. The nations within the SCO now understand that they have to put their priorities inline with the needs of Russia and of China and that doing otherwise would only give greater chance to the U.S. to undermine the region.

China altogether agrees that Russia is of great importance to the future economic, political and military future of the Chinese nation .There is no point in competing with Russia on all fronts as the Russian are good in what they do and that is heavy technology, space technology and now nano-bio technology that could be useful to China’s agricultural sector and military sector altogether. Cooperation between China and Russia has entered a different phase and this is positive for the rest of the world as it shows that these two giants have a greater role to play in the world today.

The most important thing is that Beijing and Moscow is now aware of their roles in the world but they have to transmit this knowledge to the rest of the world with success. Here we are particularly thinking of the Muslim world, which we insist is in need of a fair and sincere political, economic and military partner in the new global world.

Iran has understood the importance of China and Russia in the new global configuration and it has also seen the great role that the SCO can play on the international stage. According to the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), an American organization that acts like a think tank, Iran sees the SCO as a of like-minded states important to its geostrategic interests in Central Asia.

The SCO also complements Iran's so-called "looking East" foreign policy, says Mohsen Sazegara, an Iranian dissident, policy activist, and until recently, professor at Yale University. He says Iran has strong historical, cultural, and economic ties with many of the Central Asian countries. Iran also wants to cultivate a stronger relationship with larger states like India and China, wrote the CFR.

Further, Iran views the SCO as a potential guarantor of future security, experts say. Membership, for example, could offer Iran shelter from the international pressure put on Tehran to end its uranium-enrichment program. As usual, the U.S. finds it strange that China and Russia want to bring Iran into the organization. The U.S. believe that the SCO, being an anti-terrorist organization was wrong into giving Iran a chance to join the group since the U.S. considered Iran until recently, a member of the international terrorist organizations.

China and Russia sees in Iran as the future for cooperation between the SCO and the Islamic world. These two nations also believe that Iran has more political clout and presence than other Islamic states hence Teheran will be of importance on the world’s stage for a long time. This is not what the U.S. saw before it decided to invite Iran for a round of talks on the situation in Iraq.

Whatever will be the result of the Iranians joining the SCO, the fact remains that this organization is now gaining momentum and it is the focus of much talks in the American and western circles. America is already proving to be at a loss about how to handle a group like the SCO. In the future, it will not be surprising that the U.S. will surely attempt to have dialogues with the SCO in a bid to get to be closer to this potentially powerful organization in a region that is being coveted both by the U.S. and the China-Russia tandem.

While Dr. Michael A. Weinstein wrote in the PINR that the overall strategic aim of the alliance for Beijing and Moscow is curbing Washington's influence in Central Asia in order to establish a joint sphere of influence there, it is clear that China and Russia has a historical role to play in the said region. It is also clear that the SCO has a political and moral responsibility to enforce itself in the region and will have to act as a double lock against American incursions at the political and economic door steps of Beijing and Moscow. The same would happen if the Chinese and the Russians would show aggressive penetration in Southern America, which remains the door step to the U.S. economic empires.

Dr. Weinstein is however right when he asserts that for Beijing, the most important goal is to get a lock on the considerable energy resources of the region. China cannot afford to be trapped by the U.S. while it is in full economic expansion. Russia too will not afford such a trap – in the event the U.S. manages to control the oil and gas resources of the Central Asian region – which would threaten its economy. This is then the reason why the SCO has grown into the political and possible military organization that we have seen through this article.

With China and Russia imposing themselves as the guardians of the countries that borders their territories will also ensure that the historical trade and investment routes for Beijing and Moscow are not asphyxiated by the Americans.