The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was established on April 26, 1996 as a multilateral association to ensure security and maintain stability across the vast parts of Europe and Asia, unite efforts to address emerging challenges and threats, and promote trade as well as cultural and humanitarian cooperation.
The organization was established as a Eurasian regional bloc called the “Shanghai Quintet” comprising China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
– The Heads of State of the five countries signed the Treaty on Deepening Military Confidence in the Border Areas.
On April 24, 1997, at the Moscow meeting, the same countries signed the Treaty on the Limitation of Military Forces in Border Areas.
On June 15, 2001, the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in its new form was officially announced.
– During the St. Petersburg Summit in 2002, the Organization signed its Charter, which explains its objectives, principles, structures, and forms of action, for recognition in international law. In September 2003, the Charter of the Organization entered into force and, in accordance with the Charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the summits of the Council of Heads of State are held annually in specific places alternately, in alphabetical order of the name of the member State in Russian. The Charter also provides that the members of the Council of Heads of Government (i.e., Prime Ministers) shall meet annually at a place to be decided by the members of the Council.
India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan are currently participating, and observer countries Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, partner countries Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
The entire structure of the organization is designed with the aim of forming multilateral partnerships to assist political members in coordinating strategies and methods to resolve pressing international issues and meet regional needs. It also provides an opportunity for Member States to focus their efforts on common goals in line with the principles of voluntary cooperation and equitable distribution of responsibilities.
Objectives of the Organization
Promoting the policy of good neighborliness among Member States.
– Supporting cooperation between them and Member States in various political, economic, social and security fields.
-Confronting international blocs by working to establish a “democratic and just” international order.
Since its establishment, security cooperation has been one of the main tasks of the organization, and it remains its top priority and a major goal in the future.
– The organization states that it works to combat terrorism, confront extremism and separatist movements, and confront the arms and drug trade.
As of November 2016, the organization included about half of the earth’s population, after India, Pakistan and Iran joined it.
Regional Economic Development
The organization sought to help develop regional economies, provide favorable conditions for trade and support investment initiatives from Eastern Europe to the Russian east coast and China, as well as build an integrated road transport system.
The size of the economies of the OIC member countries in 2020 was about $ 18.4 trillion, while intra-OIC trade jumped to $ 6.2 trillion during the same period.
Since the establishment of the organization, China has proposed a long-term goal of establishing a free trade area among member states, as well as other immediate measures to improve the flow of goods in the region.
The OIC established its Business Council on June 14, 2006, with the aim of expanding economic cooperation among member states, establishing direct relations between financial communities, and facilitating the practical promotion of multilateral economic projects.
In 2006, the SCO IBC also established the Joint Banks Association (SCO IBC) to provide financing and banking services for investment projects sponsored by the governments of the SCO member countries.
Priority areas of cooperation within the SCO include providing financing for projects focusing on infrastructure, basic industries, high-tech industries, export-oriented sectors and social enterprises, issuing and providing loans based on generally accepted international banking practices, organizing pre-export financing to stimulate trade and economic cooperation among SCO member countries, and other areas of common interest.
The countries of this organization seek to integrate among themselves at the economic level, to violate the embargo imposed on them by the United States, especially Iran, Russia, and China, to attract Asian investments and supply energy products.
The SCO has great potential at the geopolitical level, in the field of oil and gas, electric power, and many others. Any new country will become a member of the organization and will lead to the economic integration that the organization aims for, and this will certainly strengthen the position of the East vis-à-vis the Western countries that adopt a unipolar policy.
4 new countries receive dialogue partner status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
On 15/9/2022, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev stated at an expanded meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit that Bahrain, the Maldives, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Myanmar will be granted the status of dialogue partner in the organization, saying, “Thanks to the firm commitment to the principles of openness and non-alignment, mutually beneficial relations between the SCO member states are strengthened, international cooperation is developing successfully, and membership is expanding,” and the President of Uzbekistan pointed to the procedure for signing a memorandum of commitments for Iran’s full membership in the organization, according to Sputnik. “We welcome the signing of a memorandum on granting the status of dialogue partners to the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Qatar, and Bahrain, the Maldives, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Myanmar will also receive the status of dialogue partners”
Egypt officially joins the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
-On 14/9/2022, Egypt signed a memorandum of accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as a dialogue partner, and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the signing took place in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, and included the memorandum of understanding on Egypt’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as a dialogue partner.
The MoU was signed by Ambassador Hamdi Sanad Loza, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for African Affairs, representing Egypt, and Chang Ming, Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Egypt’s accession to the OIC as a dialogue partner is an important step towards strengthening its relations with the OIC countries in several fields, such as trade, investment, energy, transport, and tourism, as well as supporting regional security and stability.
The Secretary General of the Shanghai Organization welcomed Egypt’s accession to the Organization as a dialogue partner, expressing the organization’s aspiration for fruitful cooperation in the next stage.
The step of Egypt’s accession to the organization reflects several dimensions related to Egypt’s pivotal role in its Middle Eastern region and in the external spheres as an important central state that performs its role in maintaining regional and international peace and stability. Egyptian within the framework of an equation based on balance and equality and movement in multiple ranges to achieve the supreme Egyptian interests and in accordance with the Egyptian national security strategy in moving in the Central Asian republics and in the various Asian scopes.
There is no doubt that Egypt’s accession to the Shanghai Organization confirms the central position of the extended Egyptian movement and will give Egypt a great opportunity to provide promising opportunities in the fields of foreign investments and attract them, especially since Egypt has a good investment law, which can give the OIC countries investment and joint action in order to achieve the major interests and common benefits of Egypt and its countries, and in fact Egypt has succeeded in confirming its regional and international presence in specialized regional organizations, which prompted Egypt’s acceptance into the Shanghai Organization and in a way that achieves We hope for the tracks and tasks of the organization, which includes countries that have political weight in international gatherings, which will be reflected in the Egyptian move to play a prominent and important role in the organization in the coming period.
This step will support the large Egyptian presence in the member states that deal with Egypt based on its main role in the region and its leading and leading role in the international system thanks to the great success achieved by the Egyptian information services in the paths of their external movement and through a tight and disciplined presidential diplomatic activity.
Egypt’s accession to the Shanghai Organization will confirm Egypt’s important role in controlling the balances of the economic and investment movement in partnership with the countries of the organization, which realize the size of the great achievements made by Egypt, and it is certain that the diplomacy of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and the movements of the institutions and organs of the state concerned will succeed in presenting Egypt as a modern state and under the new republic to the world, not only in the Shanghai Organization, but in all other economic groupings that Egypt plans to join in the coming period .
Russian President welcomes granting Egypt the status of partner in the Shanghai
Organization
On 16/9/2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed granting the UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar the status of dialogue partner in the Shanghai Organization, saying that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is today the largest regional organization in the world, and it is working to increase its role in solving international and regional problems, and that more than half of the world’s population lives in its member countries, and about a quarter of GDP is created, and strong intellectual and technological potential, and a large part of the world’s natural resources are concentrated in its countries .
Source: State Information Service Egypt