SCO Joins the Silk Road

On the day before the opening of the 10th session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization national coordinators in Khanty-Mansiisk in Siberia, the SCO secretary General for 2015, Dmitry Mezentsev, announced that “A 10-year strategy has been drafted by the Russian side. It is expected to be adopted during the SCO Summit in Ufa (in July)… The strategy will be the SCO’s proclamation for deeper and wider participation in global affairs,” he said, which will combine the national economic strategies of SCO members with the Silk Road Economic Belt project.

This will come as a great disappointment for those in the west who hope to foster tension and conflict between Russia and China in Central Asia, trying to stir up Russian anger over Chinese development projects in the former Soviet states.

Mezentsev also said that the issue of expanding the organization will be discussed, and that there are no legal hurdles to overcome for expansion.

At this time, the SCO members are the original six — Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — with Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia, and Pakistan as observers, and Belarus, Turkey, and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners.