espite being the world’s largest regional multilateral group by geographic area and population, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is still not seen as a major actor in the international arena. But its members, especially Kazakhstan—the country that hosted this year’s SCO summit in Astana on 3–4 July 2024—promise to contribute to “systemic and comprehensive development” of the “big club of countries.” How realistic is that?
The SCO, now representing over 40% of the world’s population, was founded in 2001 in the Chinese city of Shanghai by China and five former Soviet republics: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Their major goal was to jointly combat terrorism and promote border security. Over the past two decades, countries such as India, Iran, and Pakistan have joined the group, while the SCO gained two observer states, Afghanistan and Mongolia, and more than a dozen “dialogue partners,” from Myanmar to Turkey and the Arab states. Belarus became the China–dominated SCO’s tenth member during this year’s summit in Astana, where security and stability were at the top of the agenda.
The fact that the SCO, back in 2004, formed a Regional Anti–Terrorist Structure (RATS) clearly suggests that security is the organization’s possibly most important raison d’être. To this day, the multilateral group’s major task is to fight against “three evils” – terrorism, extremism, and separatism. But in order to increase its role in the international arena, the SCO will likely have to focus on other issues as well. Economy is undoubtedly one of them, given that member countries contribute approximately over $23 trillion to global GDP.
But as Kazakhstan’s President Kassym–Jomart Tokayev repeatedly stated at the Astana summit, for more than 20 years, it was not possible to implement a single major economic project under the auspices of the SCO. According to the Central Asian nation’s Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko, SCO members still work more on a bilateral rather than on a multilateral basis.
“We try to advance economic cooperation, but it’s not an easy task,” Vassilenko told Diplomatic Courier, emphasizing that the SCO is still a relatively young organization that brings together very diverse nations.
Although divergence among the SCO members remains very complex, Kazakhstan seeks to strengthen the organization’s international influence. At the same time, instead of confrontation and what Vassilenko described as a “bloc mentality,” Astana aims to ensure “peace and stable development in Eurasia.”
The United Nations—the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s strategic partner on issues related to political affairs, peace and security—seems to support such an approach.
“I think we need to recognize that when Kazakhstan acts in favor of peace, when Kazakhstan acts in bringing together parties in conflict in order to solve their problems, when Kazakhstan is this honest broker in international affairs, Kazakhstan becomes a very important instrument of the objectives of the UN,” the UN Secretary–General António Guterres emphasized during the SCO summit.
Over the years, Kazakh diplomacy has focused on finding compromise solutions to many international problems. For instance, between 2017 and 2023 the Central Asian state has been hosting the Astana Process in which representatives of Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iran tried to find ways to resolve the Syrian conflict and end the civil war that broke out in 2011. Moreover, on 10–11 May 2024, Kazakhstan hosted the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan, respectively, in the city of Almaty, where the two officials discussed normalization of relations between the South Caucasus archenemies who fought the war over Nagorno–Karabakh in 2020.
Kazakhstan, as its officials emphasized at the SCO summit, has clearly demonstrated its commitment to promoting cooperation and dialogue as key components of its foreign policy priorities. The country has also proposed to act as a venue for talks between Russia and Ukraine.
The former Soviet republic seems to have become a hub for international diplomacy. Besides hosting the SCO summit, Kazakhstan is also chairing several other organizations this year, including the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), the Organization of Turkic States, among others. More importantly, using its pragmatic foreign policy, and balancing between Russia, China, and the West, Astana has been viewed as a “middle power,” as well as a buffer and a stabilizing force between major powers.
Despite its geographical size—the ninth largest country in the world—Kazakhstan has in the past rarely been recognized for its political influence on the global stage. But the SCO summit held in Astana might change that. However, amid the global strategic uncertainty, Kazakhstan will face challenges in achieving that ambitious goal. Major powers within the SCO may continue to use the organization as an instrument that allows them to achieve their own geopolitical goals in Eurasia. Nonetheless, Kazakhstan might manage to navigate these complexities and assert its role as a stabilizing force in the strategically important region. For Astana, it is important both politically and economically.
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Kazakhstan aims for ‘middle power’ status via China–led SCO
Astana, Kazakhstan. Image by Uladzislau Petrushkevich from Unsplash.
July 15, 2024
Kazakhstan hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana this year, seeking greater global influence with a focus on peace, stability, and economic cooperation, writes Nikola Mikovic.
D
espite being the world’s largest regional multilateral group by geographic area and population, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is still not seen as a major actor in the international arena. But its members, especially Kazakhstan—the country that hosted this year’s SCO summit in Astana on 3–4 July 2024—promise to contribute to “systemic and comprehensive development” of the “big club of countries.” How realistic is that?
The SCO, now representing over 40% of the world’s population, was founded in 2001 in the Chinese city of Shanghai by China and five former Soviet republics: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Their major goal was to jointly combat terrorism and promote border security. Over the past two decades, countries such as India, Iran, and Pakistan have joined the group, while the SCO gained two observer states, Afghanistan and Mongolia, and more than a dozen “dialogue partners,” from Myanmar to Turkey and the Arab states. Belarus became the China–dominated SCO’s tenth member during this year’s summit in Astana, where security and stability were at the top of the agenda.
The fact that the SCO, back in 2004, formed a Regional Anti–Terrorist Structure (RATS) clearly suggests that security is the organization’s possibly most important raison d’être. To this day, the multilateral group’s major task is to fight against “three evils” – terrorism, extremism, and separatism. But in order to increase its role in the international arena, the SCO will likely have to focus on other issues as well. Economy is undoubtedly one of them, given that member countries contribute approximately over $23 trillion to global GDP.
But as Kazakhstan’s President Kassym–Jomart Tokayev repeatedly stated at the Astana summit, for more than 20 years, it was not possible to implement a single major economic project under the auspices of the SCO. According to the Central Asian nation’s Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko, SCO members still work more on a bilateral rather than on a multilateral basis.
“We try to advance economic cooperation, but it’s not an easy task,” Vassilenko told Diplomatic Courier, emphasizing that the SCO is still a relatively young organization that brings together very diverse nations.
Although divergence among the SCO members remains very complex, Kazakhstan seeks to strengthen the organization’s international influence. At the same time, instead of confrontation and what Vassilenko described as a “bloc mentality,” Astana aims to ensure “peace and stable development in Eurasia.”
The United Nations—the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s strategic partner on issues related to political affairs, peace and security—seems to support such an approach.
“I think we need to recognize that when Kazakhstan acts in favor of peace, when Kazakhstan acts in bringing together parties in conflict in order to solve their problems, when Kazakhstan is this honest broker in international affairs, Kazakhstan becomes a very important instrument of the objectives of the UN,” the UN Secretary–General António Guterres emphasized during the SCO summit.
Over the years, Kazakh diplomacy has focused on finding compromise solutions to many international problems. For instance, between 2017 and 2023 the Central Asian state has been hosting the Astana Process in which representatives of Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iran tried to find ways to resolve the Syrian conflict and end the civil war that broke out in 2011. Moreover, on 10–11 May 2024, Kazakhstan hosted the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan, respectively, in the city of Almaty, where the two officials discussed normalization of relations between the South Caucasus archenemies who fought the war over Nagorno–Karabakh in 2020.
Kazakhstan, as its officials emphasized at the SCO summit, has clearly demonstrated its commitment to promoting cooperation and dialogue as key components of its foreign policy priorities. The country has also proposed to act as a venue for talks between Russia and Ukraine.
The former Soviet republic seems to have become a hub for international diplomacy. Besides hosting the SCO summit, Kazakhstan is also chairing several other organizations this year, including the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), the Organization of Turkic States, among others. More importantly, using its pragmatic foreign policy, and balancing between Russia, China, and the West, Astana has been viewed as a “middle power,” as well as a buffer and a stabilizing force between major powers.
Despite its geographical size—the ninth largest country in the world—Kazakhstan has in the past rarely been recognized for its political influence on the global stage. But the SCO summit held in Astana might change that. However, amid the global strategic uncertainty, Kazakhstan will face challenges in achieving that ambitious goal. Major powers within the SCO may continue to use the organization as an instrument that allows them to achieve their own geopolitical goals in Eurasia. Nonetheless, Kazakhstan might manage to navigate these complexities and assert its role as a stabilizing force in the strategically important region. For Astana, it is important both politically and economically.
