Rise of the Global South?

Originally a group dubbed the “Shanghai Five” that comprised China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that first convened in 1996, the SCO was formally established in 2001 when Uzbekistan joined. While the group initially focused on managing border disputes and battling terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism in the region, its scope has gradually expanded to include a wide range of economic, cultural and scientific fields. In recent years, the SCO has extended its geographic reach, with India and Pakistan joining in 2017, followed by Iran in July 2023.　

During this year’s summit, Belarus became a full member. Currently, the SCO has 10 member states, two observers, Afghanistan and Mongolia, and 14 dialogue partners, such as Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Egpyt, Qatar, the UAE, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.　

With nearly half of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s GDP from the 26 countries, the SCO has become a comprehensive regional SCO Summit Rise of the Global South? The SCO summit has increasing appeal to regional leaders and those of the Global South, as the group expands its remit to tackle issues of sustainability and infrastructure By Yu Xiaodong Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Independence Palace, Astana, Kazakhstan, July 4, 2024 (Photo by CNS) INTERNATIONAL15 NEWSCHINA I September 2024 organization that covers the largest population and area in the world. More countries hope to “obtain or upgrade their legal status in the SCO,” said Mao Ning, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson on July 5.　

China assumed the rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization after the Astana Summit.　

Speaking at the leaders’ meeting on July 4, Xi said that the SCO’s establishment marks a historical decision made by the SCO’s founding members to pursue peaceful development, commit to good-neighborliness and friendship, and build a new type of international relations.　

Xi pointed out that the SCO stands on the right side of history, fairness and justice and is of great significance to the world. As the world is now facing accelerating changes unseen in a century, SCO members must stay true to their original aspirations.　

In a veiled criticism of the US, Xi called on SCO members to safeguard the right to development in the face of real risks of “small yard, high fences,” referring to the strategy the US adopted to contain China’s high-tech sector, to “jointly oppose external interference,” and to respond by adopting a win-win approach to build a world of lasting peace and universal security.　

Xi’s view was echoed by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev. In his speech delivered at the SCO Plus Summit, Tokayev warned that as “the world is facing serious challenges due to unprecedented geopolitical contradictions and growing conflict potential,” the current architecture of international security is under threat, “which could lead to dire consequences for all of humankind,” according to the English script of his speech released by the country’s official presidential web site.　

“In such a crucial period, we have a great responsibility to strengthen peace, stability, and security through collective efforts at regional and global levels,” Tokayev added.　

This year’s SCO summit is the first time that the SCO has held a meeting under the “Plus” format. Under the SCO Plus format, the summit was attended not only by SCO member states, SCO observers and dialogue partner states, but also by heads of international organizations, including United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and leading officials of other international and regional organizations.　

According to Sun Zhuangzhi, director of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the unprecedented scale of this year’s SCO summit indicates that the group has become increasingly attractive for the Global South to participate in global governance and engage in multilateral cooperation.　

Sun pointed out that the SCO has expanded its geographical reach in the past years and extended its scope from security issues to a wide range of other issues.　

“Challenged by ongoing external conflicts and internal disputes, many countries face the daunting tasks of developing their economies and improving people’s living standards, and there are many issues to be addressed,” Sun told NewsChina.　

Speaking with media at a press conference held on July 10 in Beijing, Zhang Ming, SCO secretary-general, said that many countries in the Global South are actively applying to join the SCO, although the group does not seek rapid expansion. Zhang stated that the SCO will remain open to accepting new members but will primarily focus on development within the organization and exchanges and cooperation among its member states, stressing that the SCO’s potential for expansion is a natural result of its recognition from the international community of the organization’s achievements on development and cooperation.　

Zhou argued that while NATO needs to look for “new threats, more recently in the Indo-Pacific, to justify its survival,” the SCO, which started as a group to manage border disputes among member states, is more concerned about preventing internal conflicts.　

Moreover, compared to NATO, economic cooperation plays a major role in binding member states together in the SCO, Zhou said. It is notable that it was during his keynote visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013 when President Xi proposed the idea of building an “economic belt along the Silk Road.” Combined with the proposal of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the idea eventually became the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Since then, central Asia has played a central role in both the SCO and the BRI.　

During the summit, SCO leaders agreed on more than 20 documents, covering economy, finance, security and people-to-people exchanges, and jointly released the Astana Declaration, which calls for “a more just and multipolar world order.” They also reaffirmed their goal of increasing the use of national currencies in mutual trade and settlements and pledged to continue working on the creation of the SCO Development Bank, the SCO Development Fund and the SCO Investment Fund.　

On July 3, Xi and Tokayev attended the opening ceremony of the Trans-Caspian international transportation route via video link. The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest inland body of water, surrounded by Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan, all SCO member states or dialogue partners except for Turkmenistan. The route’s opening marks the first time Chinese freight trucks can reach ports along the Caspian Sea coast through direct road transport.　

Earlier in June, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan also signed an agreement on construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway. The 523-kilometer railway project is estimated to cost US$8 billion. Forming part of the BRI, the project will improve Central Asia’s connectivity and help the region integrate into global industrial and supply chains.　

In his speech at the SCO Plus Meeting on July 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed that 2025 be designated the SCO Year of Sustainable Development. As the first major event under China’s presidency, the Green Development Forum of SCO Countries opened in the coastal city of Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, on July 8. In his congratulatory letter to the forum, Xi noted that it is the consensus of SCO countries to protect the environment and promote green development. Qingdao was designated as the tourism and cultural capital of the SCO for 2024 to 2025 to “help unlock the tourism potential of the region and further strengthen cultural cooperation,” says the Astana Declaration.　

At the SCO Plus Meeting, Xi proposed to establish an SCO digital education alliance, and offered to provide at least 1,000 training opportunities on digital technology to fellow countries in the SCO in the next three years.　

For Li Yongquan, director of the Institute for the Social Development of Europe and Asia of the Research Centre of the State Council, the SCO has established a model for new types of international relations and regional cooperation. Li told NewsChina that this year’s SCO summit has shown that after more than 20 years of development, the SCO, with its underlining principle of the “Shanghai Spirit,” which features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development, has shown growing appeal to countries of the Global South, which have diverse political systems, levels of economic development, and cultural background.　

A thousand young people from countries in the SCO will be invited to China for exchange opportunities in the next five years.　

Cultural inclusiveness and resilience, which is based on the respect for cultural diversity highlighted in the SCO Charter, is one of the reasons for the SCO’s growing role in the international community, commented Xing Guangcheng, director of the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in an article he wrote for China News Service on July 7.