SHANGHAI COOPERATION

ORGANIZATION

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What is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

is an intergovernmental Eurasian organization
composed of China, Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan founded
in Shanghai in 2001, with India and Pakistan
joining in 2017.

Originally formed as a confidence-building

forum to demilitarize borders, the
organization’s goals and agenda have since
broadened to include increased military and
counterterrorism cooperation and intelligence
sharing. 2
Origins

• The Shanghai Five grouping was created on China Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan
April 26, 1996 with the signing of the Treaty 26 April 1996
on Deepening Military Trust in Border
Regions in Shanghai by the heads of state of
Kazakhstan, The People’s Republic of China,
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan, The Russian Federation, and 15 June 2001
Tajikistan.
• The very same countries signed the Treaty
on Reduction of Military Forces in Moscow. India Pakistan
9 June 2017
• Uzbekistan was later admitted in the
Shanghai Five and at June 15, 2001, all six
heads of state signed the Declaration of
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
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Member states
Member states

China
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Russia
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
India
Pakistan

Observer states Dialogue partners Guest attendances

Afghanistan ASEAN
Armenia Nepal
Belarus Turkmenistan
Azerbaijan Sri Lanka
Iran CIS
Cambodia Turkey
Mongolia UN
SCO’s
Headquarters
is located at
Beijing, China.
With official
languages
being Russian
and Mandarin
Chinese.
Activities
 Fight cross-border drug crimes
 Agreement with CSTO

 Redefining cyber-warfare
Cooperation
on security
 Military cooperation
 Intelligence sharing

 Counterterrorism
Cultural Military
cooperation activities

 Arts Festival and Exhibition

 Folk dance festival
Economic
cooperation
 Free trade area
 Joint energy projects

 Designing a new banking system

Purpose of Shanghai Cooperation Organization

• Strengthen relations among member states

• Promote cooperation in political affairs, economics and trade, scientific-technical, cultural, and
educational spheres as well as in energy, transportation, tourism, and environmental protection
• Safeguard regional peace, security, and stability
• Create a democratic, equitable international political and economic order

Analysis
• The SCO’s existence stand to role out the Western influences, especially to USA as they explicitly
denied its application on being an observer state. It is also to deter aggression among members to
in creating economic or military conflict. As of now, despite being one of the largest organization
representing almost half of the population of the world as well 1/3 of the economy, their potential
to be a great organization is halted with their own nationalistic rivalries between members.

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• Sources:
• https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/shanghai-
cooperation-organization
• https://yourfreetemplates.com/shanghai-
cooperation-organization-templates/
• https://aric.adb.org/initiative/shanghai-cooperation-
organization