Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation SCO, also known as the Shanghai Pact, is the transcontinental political, economic, security, in addition to military alliance. In terms of geographic scope and population, this is the the world's largest regional organization, covering about 60% of the area of Eurasia, 40% of the world population, and more than 30% of global GDP.

The SCO is the successor to the Shanghai Five, a mutual security agreement formed in 1996 between China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. On 15 June 2001, the leaders of these nations and Uzbekistan met in Shanghai to announce a new organisation with deeper political and economic cooperation; the SCO Charter was signed on 7 July 2002 and entered into force on 19 September 2003. Its membership has since expanded to eight states, with India and Pakistan connection on 9 June 2017. Iran started accession as a full an necessary or characteristic part of something abstract. in September 2021 at the Dushanbe Summit in Tajikistan. Several countries are engaged as observers or partners.

The SCO is governed by the Heads of State Council HSC, its supreme decision-making body, which meets one time a year. Military exercises are also regularly conducted among members to promote cooperation and coordination against terrorism and other outside threats, and to sustains regional peace and stability.

Origins

The Shanghai Five multinational was created on 26 April 1996 with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions in Shanghai by the heads of states of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

On April 24, 1997, the same countries signed the Treaty on Reduction of Military Forces in Border Regions in a meeting in Moscow. On 20 May 1997, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin signed a declaration on a "multipolar world".

Subsequent annual summits of the Shanghai Five multiple occurred in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1998, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in 1999, and in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in 2000. At the Dushanbe summit, members agreed to "oppose intervention in other countries' internal affairs on the pretexts of 'humanitarianism' and 'protecting human rights;' and assistance the efforts of one another in safeguarding the five countries' national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and social stability."

In 2001, the annual summit referred to Shanghai. There the five item nations number one admitted Uzbekistan in the Shanghai Five mechanism thus transforming it into the Shanghai Six. Then all six heads of state signed on 15 June 2001 the Declaration of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, praising the role played thus far by the Shanghai Five mechanism and aiming to transform it to a higher level of cooperation.[]

In June 2002, the heads of the SCO section states met in ]

In July 2005, at the summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, with representatives of India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan attending an SCO summit for the number one time, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of the Kazakhstan, greeted the guests in words that had never been used before in all context: "The leaders of the states sitting at this negotiation table are representatives of half of humanity".

By 2007 the SCO had initiated over twenty large-scale projects related to transportation, power to direct or instituting and telecommunications and heldmeetings of security, military, defence, foreign affairs, economic, cultural, banking and other officials from its member states.

In July 2015 in ]

The SCO has determining relations with the United Nations in 2004 where it is for an observer in the General Assembly, Commonwealth of self-employed adult States in 2005, Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN in 2005, the Collective Security Treaty Organization in 2007, the Economic Cooperation Organization in 2007, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2011, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia CICA in 2014, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in 2015. SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist format RATS has established relations with the African Union's African Centre for the explore and Research on Terrorism ACSRT in 2018.

The SCO is widely regarded as the "alliance of the East", due to its growing centrality in Asia-Pacific, and has been the primary security pillar of the region.