In Tashkent, on November 1, a two-day summit of the heads of government of the countries - members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization opens. The event will be attended by the premieres of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India will be represented by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. Pakistan at meetings of this kind is traditionally represented by a high-ranking official in the rank of minister.

As SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov told reporters earlier, prime ministers of countries with observer status in the SCO: Afghanistan, Belarus, Mongolia and Iran were also invited to the summit. In addition, the heads of the Interbank Association of the organization and its Business Council will attend the multilateral meeting.

“The meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO member states will give an important impetus to the implementation of multilateral initiatives of the SCO member states, promoting mutually beneficial partnership cooperation in the region, accelerating economic growth, expanding ties in the fields of transport and energy, industry, increasing investment, introducing innovations and ensuring employment population, by expanding the relevant legal framework, ”- this is how Norov described the agenda of the meeting.

Agenda

At a meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government, among others, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will speak. A number of bilateral meetings are also expected with the participation of the chairman of the Russian government.

“Following the meeting, it is planned to adopt a joint communique, a new edition of the“ Program of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation, ”other documents and decisions,” the press service of the Russian government said.

First of all, the heads of government will discuss issues of trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation. It is planned to pay special attention to cooperation in the transport industry, energy and agriculture, as well as in the field of high technologies, "including in the context of the Russian Federation's presidency of the SCO in 2019-2020," the press service of the Cabinet noted.

  • Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a joint photograph of the heads of delegations of the SCO member states
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  • © Alexander Astafiev

Earlier, the Council of National Coordinators of the countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization agreed on draft documents that should be approved by the heads of government.

The Director General of the EurAsEC Institute, Vladimir Lepyokhin, noted in an interview with RT that meetings at the level of heads of government and heads of ministries within the framework of the SCO are an indicator of the organization’s active work, in particular, that decisions adopted at the level of heads of state are being implemented.

“The heads of state are actually the entities that make decisions. And the heads of government execute them at a technical level. I note that the decisions of the heads of state about something are always followed by intergovernmental decisions that are more specific, ”notes Lepyokhin.

In his opinion, now the importance of economic cooperation within the SCO is growing for all its members.

“The key issue is the strategic priorities of economic development. Strengthening integration on a Eurasian scale, namely, the SCO, the EAEU, ASEAN and so on, ”said Lepokhin.

“Universal character”

According to data presented on the eve of the summit at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in 2018, the total GDP of the SCO countries reached $ 18 trillion. This is 10 times more than in 2001, when the organization was founded. As previously noted by the assistant to the Minister of Commerce of China, Li Chenggang, the influence of the SCO on the world economy, as well as the volume of trade between the member countries of the organization is growing steadily.

Andrei Suzdaltsev, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics at the HSE, noted in an interview with RT that over the 18 years of the SCO's development, it has gone from an organization that was primarily associated with security and the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking to a universal international institution for which it is important and issues of economic development.

“The SCO has gone through several cycles during its existence. At some periods, he paid more attention to security, at another time, when the situation was more or less stabilized, he switched to trade and economic relations. This organization is universal. It takes on any topic that allows states to cooperate, ”said Suzdaltsev. - Therefore, it is not entirely true to say that the SCO deals only with security issues. Security itself is not needed unless it is backed up by money and economic development. ”

A similar point of view is shared by Vladimir Lepyokhin, who noted that in order to achieve real progress in rapprochement on political issues, “it would be nice to have an economic basis”.

It is worth noting that the strategic cooperation of the SCO countries is traditionally discussed at meetings of state leaders, the last of which was held in Bishkek in June. However, according to the expert, given the tense geopolitical situation in the world, in Tashkent, in addition to economic projects, trade relations, finances, investments, long-term logistics systems, the prime ministers will also discuss political issues. Among them - the situation in Syria, US-Iran relations, as well as Saudi-Iranian contradictions.

“We should expect a very serious and deep discussion related to the situation in relations between China and Russia with the USA,” Suzdaltsev believes. - What is happening between Iran and Saudi Arabia will also be in the spotlight. True, not in the aspect on which it rises at the level of heads of state. But the discussion will certainly take place. ”

"Special Expectations"

The assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Chen Xiaodong, on the eve of the visit to Tashkent by the Prime Minister of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang, said that in the conditions of international instability, many countries “have special hopes” for the SCO.

According to Andrei Suzdaltsev, a significant part of the economic agenda of the forum can be precisely the “proposals of the Chinese side” in the framework of the global project “One belt, one way”.

  • SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov
  • RIA News
  • © Tabyldy Kadyrbekov

It is worth noting that on October 20, SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov, speaking at the Xiangshan Security Forum in China, said that the settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan is one of the organization’s work priorities.

The situation in Afghanistan was also actively discussed at the summit of the heads of state of the SCO member states in Bishkek.

According to Vladimir Lepyokhin, it is expected that the problem of combating drug trafficking will be raised in Tashkent, because this issue is directly related to Afghanistan and requires efforts not only from the Afghan side, but also from the SCO.

Another problem area is relations between India and Pakistan. After these countries joined the SCO in 2017, the importance of the organization, which began to cover almost half the world's population - 3 billion people, has grown. However, the “traditional load” of the SCO also went to the traditional Indo-Pakistani confrontation.

In February-March 2019, the cross-border conflict between the two neighbors went into an acute phase with mutual shelling and airstrikes. In August, the Indian parliament decided to abolish the autonomous status of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, which led to a decrease in diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Islamabad. In September, the Pakistani side refused to participate in one of the events under the auspices of the SCO, which was held in India and dedicated to military medicine.

On October 1, the head of the Pakistan-led part of Kashmir, Masoud Khan, called on Russia to act as an intermediary between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. According to him, Moscow could use its close ties with India to achieve this goal.

According to Andrei Suzdaltsev, the positive peacekeeping experience of Russia in Syria can be claimed in the framework of the SCO.

“This summit will also include Russia's peacekeeping, its international arbitration and the reduction of conflict in the Middle East and Eurasia as a whole,” the political scientist said.

In turn, Vladimir Lepyokhin noted that it is possible to solve the problems of Central Asia and neighboring countries only together, for which the SCO exists.

“Within the framework of the SCO, the governments of the member states have every opportunity to collectively solve the existing problems, which are enough in the region (to take the same drug trafficking). And of course, that each individual country alone cannot solve it. A collective approach is needed here, ”the expert summed up.