With rising China, resurgent Russian and realignment of regional and global dynamics, the role and significance
of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has increased manifold. The Summit of SCO was the first for
Pakistan and India as full members of the organization, which brings new opportunities and hope as well as
challenges for the region. This brief briefly reviews the key themes of the Summit and foresees Pakistan’s
role in it.
T he 18th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO) was held at Qingdao,
Shandong province of China, on 9-10 June
2018. It was the first SCO Summit attended by
Pakistan and India following their accession as full
members of SCO. The SCO Summit took place in the
backdrop of an emerging World Order characterized
by a shift from the West (Atlantic) to the East (Asia &
Pacific), the phenomenal economic rise of China
during last four decades and its incremental military
build-up, the resurgence of Russia, remarkable growth
in Asian economies and the phasing out of the
American-led post-World War II Order in the wake of
the end of the Cold War and America’s unipolar
moment (1993-2003).
China’s President Xi Jinping inaugurated and chaired
the Summit. In his speech, President Xi focused on a
new development paradigm instead of security-centric
relations, shared prosperity, win-win-regional
cooperation within the SCO as harbinger of global
cooperation, good-neighborly relations, renewed
commitment to fight three evils of terrorism,
separatism, extremism; and the establishment of an
equitable and just world order. He urged the SCO
member states to ‘stay committed to the Shanghai
Spirit, surmount difficulties, defuse risks and meet
challenges’ for ‘coordinated social and economic
progress of various countries and resolve issues
caused by unbalanced development,’ for achieving the
objectives of the SCO Charter. He stressed to pursue
‘sustainable security,’ reject ‘the Cold War mentality
and confrontation between blocs,’ ‘self-centered,
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short-sighted and closed-door policies,’ ‘uphold WTO
rules, and ‘support the multilateral trading system’ to
‘build an open world economy.’
President Xi motivated the SCO member states to
‘build an SCO community with a shared future,’ and
develop ‘a new type of international relations based on
lasting peace, universal security, and common
prosperity. He laid special emphasis on the
implementation of the Qingdao Declaration and other
20 documents signed during the Summit especially the
Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighborliness,
Friendship and Cooperation; the 2019-2021 program
of cooperation for combating ‘‘three evil forces’’ of
terrorism, separatism, and extremism,’ and ‘the role of
the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group to facilitate
peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.’
President Xi announced to train 2,000 law
enforcement officers and 3,000 persons in human
resource development from member states. He offered
to use China’s Fengyun 2 weather satellites for
meteorological service to all parties. He underlined the
need ‘to advance the Belt and Road cooperation,
‘accelerate regional trade facilitation through the
implementation of the Agreement on International
Road Transport Facilitation.’ He announced to set up
an RMB 30 billion (4.7 billion U.S. dollars) special
lending facility within the framework of the SCO
Inter-bank Consortium.
To broaden international outreach of the SCO,
President Xi announced to develop partnership
networks with SCO observer states, dialogue partners,
the United Nations’ and ‘dialogue with the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and
other international financial institutions, for ‘resolving
hotspot issues and improving global governance.
The SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov
welcomed the decision to admit India and Pakistan
as full members of SCO and expressed the hope that
the expansion will unveil the Organization’s unlimited
potential. The Qingdao Declaration noted that ‘the
new quality and dynamics’ have ‘emerged in various
fields of cooperation’ since India and Pakistan’s
‘accession to the SCO.’
The President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain
reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to implement
SCO’s Charter and to work under the Shanghai Spirit,
reiterated Pakistan’s readiness to act as a conduit
between Eurasia, China, Central and South Asia;
offered Pakistan-SCO Trade, Transit and Energy
Corridor to pass through its territory; and willingness
to connect CPEC to the six main road corridors of
SCO. He stressed to follow a comprehensive effort to
counter drug trafficking in the SCO region. He
reaffirmed Pakistan’s role to peace and stability in
Afghanistan to be achieved through an Afghan-led,
Afghan-owned process of peace and reconciliation.
He urged the SCO member states to consider the
establishment of a development fund to fight terrorism
and extremism.
Pakistan’s President held bilateral meetings with
President Xi Jinping of China, President Putin of
Russia, President Emomalii Rahmon of Tajikistan,
President Rouhani of Iran and President Mirziyoyev
of Uzbekistan, on the sidelines of the SCO Summit.
They exchanged views on strengthening bilateral
relations and enhancing multifaceted cooperation in a
number of areas under the ambit of the SCO.
Analysis & Assessment
At the beginning of the 20th century, even before the
First World War, Halford Mackinder had commented
in his treatise The Geographical Pivot of History that
whoever controls the Eurasian heartland — from the
Volga to the Yangtze and the Himalayas to the Arctic
— would control the world.1 Nicholas Spykman
contested the thesis and propounded that whoever
controlled Eurasia’s rim would control the Eurasian
heartland and the world.2 This shift is taking place
now in the 21st century with the meteoric economic
1
Mackinder, Halford, The Geographical Pivot of History, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 170, No. 4, December 2004, pp.
298–321
2
Spykman, Nicholas, The Geography of the Peace, California: Harcourt, 1944
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rise of China. China will soon be the world’s largest
economy and the second military power in the next
three decades. Simultaneously, Russia has risen from
the ashes and its resurgence is in the offing. Russia is
again a military match for NATO, the dominant power
in Central Asia and a critical player in the Middle East
and in South Asia.
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) represents
a strategic initiative of China and Russia, which
covers entire Eurasia. It now represents around 45%
of the world population, 25% of the world GDP and
22% geographical expanse of the entire world.
Interestingly, Hungary, Poland, Greece, Italy, and
Austria desire closer relations with Russia. Seventeen
European countries have agreed to join China’s Belt
and Road Initiative (BRI). China’s vision to engage
with Eurasia’s rim, the heartland and ultimately the
world is gradually taking shape.
The Eurasian heartland is now under Chinese and
Russian influence after the establishment and
expansion of the SCO. The focus of strategic
competition of China and Russia with the US now is
the entire Eurasian Rim, i.e. southern Europe, Middle
East, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The European
pillar of the American security order is in disarray.
The expansion of the European Union is frozen; the
UK has exited; southern Europeans are unhappy with
the single currency; Turkey is alienated from NATO
and the EU; and mass migration from the Middle East
and Africa has revived racism and eroded European
unity. The recent unilateral US trade tariffs, the threat
of trade war with China, the failure of G7 meeting, US
withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and threatened
sanctions against Europeans doing business with
Tehran are weakening the Atlantic alliance.
The analysts believe that China is filling in the
strategic gap emanating from the declining Atlantic
alliance. China is playing the pivotal and lead role in
the SCO and taking the SCO Community forward to
achieve goals of economic development, peace, and
security in accordance with the Shanghai Spirit, which
essentially encompasses the values of mutual trust,
mutual respect, equality, respect for diverse
civilizations and pursuit of shared development.
China’s pragmatic vision to carve out a New World
Order through the CPEC and the BRI, connecting
more than 60 countries across Asia, Middle East, and
Europe; is likely to transform regional and global
political and economic landscape.
Pakistan’s membership of the SCO is an important
achievement in the foreign policy. It has unleashed
multiple opportunities for Pakistan to cooperate with
the SCO Community bilaterally and regionally.
Pakistan needs to follow a proactive foreign policy to
seize these opportunities. Following points need
serious consideration in this regard.
 First, Pakistan needs to strengthen its
economic cooperation and all-weather
strategic cooperative partnership with China.
 Second, Pakistan needs to redouble its efforts
for smooth implementation of the CPEC
projects by following clearly defined terms of
engagement, the optimal use of Pakistan’s
geostrategic location as a trade corridor, and
the Gwadar Port for greater economic
linkages with neighbouring countries and
cooperation with Central Asian states. These
steps will strengthen cooperation with SCO
and contribute to overall dynamics of the
SCO.
 Third, it can be hoped that the entry of
Pakistan and India as full members of the
SCO will facilitate a certain level of
normalization of their relations and draw
India closer to the Sino-Russian sphere. This
is likely to be a long, painstaking and
uncertain game as the US has given a distinct
role to India as a partner to contain China’s
rising power in Asia. China and Russia are
endeavoring to prevent India’s complete
military alignment with the US and will strive
to play a mediatory role for the normalization
of India-Pakistan relations. While Pakistan is
fully committed to peace, India is less likely
to change its hawkish and hegemonic
approach in the foreseeable future.
 Fourth, it is interesting to note that seven
member states of the SCO, with exception of
India, reaffirmed their support in the Qingdao
Declaration for the implementation of the BRI
and the development of the Eurasian
Economic Union. It confirms India’s
intention of non-cooperation on mega CPEC
and BRI projects due to its hegemonic though
unfounded claims over Gilgit-Baltistan and
Kashmir. It will be a complex issue for the
SCO to bring India on board in BRI.
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 Fifth, Pakistan needs to reinforce its
determination to endorse the SCO’s resolve to
fight ‘terrorism’ in letter and spirit. Pakistan’s
inclusion in the SCO will help share with
member states its experiences of combating
the worst terrorist attacks and violent
extremism in the last one and a half decade
and improvement in the security and
economic situation in Pakistan in 2016
onward. At the same time, it is to be noted that
three evil forces the SCO intends to fight have
a strong link and roots in Afghanistan.
Moreover, extra- regional players including
the US are still operating in Afghanistan. In
this regard, SCO would require devising a
long-term approach to deal with extra-
regional players. In this matrix, Pakistan
could play a leading role with the help of
SCO.
 Sixth, Iran aspires to join as a full member of
the SCO to work in unison with the SCO
member states on BRI and CPEC projects and
to offset the impact of the recent erratic and
impulsive Trump decision to withdraw from
the Iran nuclear deal. Pakistan should join
SCO member states in supporting Iran’s bid
to be admitted as a full member of the SCO.
Pakistan also needs to improve bilateral
relations with Iran and persuade Iran to join
the CPEC and BRI projects so that the idea for
the mutual use of the Gwadar Port and the
Chahbahar Port is accomplished. This will
help achieve development objectives of the
SCO.
 Seventh, Pakistan needs to develop close,
cooperative and economic relations with
Russia bilaterally and regionally. This close
collaboration will dispel mistrust and help
bring two countries closer and contribute to
peace, reconciliation, reconstruction, and
stability in Afghanistan.
 Eighth, Pakistan may consider importing oil,
and gas from Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
Pakistan should institutionalize educational
linkages with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and
Kazakhstan by offering more scholarships,
training, and capacity-building courses, and
educational facilities in Pakistan’s prestigious
institutions and universities.
 Ninth, Pakistan needs to develop a broader
political understanding with the Afghan
leadership and other important regional
 players included in SCO member states to
achieve peace, reconciliation, reconstruction,
and stability in Afghanistan. Pakistan should
also bolster its meaningful engagement with
Afghanistan through transit trade,
reconstruction projects, economic assistance,
education and training cum capacity-building
courses. The realization of SCO vision of
connectivity, cooperation, and development
lies in durable peace in Afghanistan.
CONCLUSION
The SCO has emerged as an important regional
alliance and international organization. China, along
with its SCO partners, is committed to constructing a
New World Order encompassing a multi-polar world.
The BRI, of which CPEC is an integral part, is a
manifestation of this New World Oder. The political
clout and economic rise of China will serve as an
anchor of global peace, global development,
international justice, prosperity, stability, win-win-
cooperation and economic development in the SCO
region and beyond. It is hard to imagine building
global and regional security architecture without the
SCO.
The final shape of the New World Order will,
however, depend heavily on the evolution of the
relationship between China and the US. Their national
interests can be served more by cooperation than
confrontation. Their strategic confrontation could lead
to instability in several regions but their cooperation
could accelerate trade, investment, global growth and
prosperity in the Eurasian heartland, its Rim and
beyond. Only time will prove these analyses coming
true or otherwise. But for the time being, the
pendulum is swinging in favor of the SCO.
The inclusion of Pakistan as a full member provides
the SCO with a link and route to South Asia and to the
Indian Ocean. Pakistan must recalibrate its foreign
policy to a development policy to become more
relevant to the SCO and the New World Order.
Pakistan enjoys an important geostrategic location. It
has been blessed with enormous natural resources and
very hard working people. By joining SCO, Pakistan
could contribute to peaceful relations with neighbors
as well as peace, security, stability, and development
of the SCO region. Simultaneously, Pakistan must
sync its engagement with the SCO with its internal
reforms.
Pakistan’s inclusion in the SCO has dispelled the
perception that Pakistan is isolated internationally in
the wake of horrendous terrorist attacks in the last one
and a half decade. Pakistan can share with SCO
member states its experiences in combatting terrorism
and extremism.
Finally, Pakistan must consciously play its robust and
constructive role in the SCO. It will enable Pakistan to
actualize the vision of the founding fathers of
Pakistan, Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal and the
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, about the
resurgence of Asia and repositioning of Pakistan as
‘pivot of the world placed on the frontiers around
which the future of the world will revolve.’
It is hard to imagine building global and regional
security architecture and economic development
paradigm without the SCO. The 18th SCO Summit has
set the ground and agenda on the basis of China’s
economic and political clout, CPEC and BRI as well
as enormous natural resources in the SCO region for
establishing a New World Order.

Prepared by:
Ambassador (R) Tajammul Altaf
Senior Research Associate,
Institute of Policy Studies (IPS),
Islamabad.

For queries:
Syed Nadeem Farhat, Senior Research Coordinator,
nadeem@ips.net.pk | www.ips.org.pk

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