The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: A Rising Counterweight to Western Influence, moderndiplomacy.eu

Sabah Aslam, Founder & Executive Director of Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution (IICR)

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc founded in 2001, is increasingly positioning itself as a counterbalance to Western influence in Eurasia. At its annual meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, the organization’s leaders, particularly Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, emphasized the group’s growing importance in reshaping the global order.[…]

President Xi Jinping’s call to resist “external meddling” underscores the SCO’s primary objective of reducing Western influence in the region. His metaphor of “small yards with high fences” likely alludes to what the bloc perceives as Western attempts to isolate or contain SCO member states. Xi’s emphasis on safeguarding the “right to development” suggests a narrative that positions the SCO as a guardian of its members’ sovereign interests against external pressures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a new set of Eurasian collective security treaties marks a bold attempt to reshape the region’s security architecture. While details remain limited, Putin’s suggestion that this system should be open to all countries on the continent, including NATO members, while aiming to remove external military presence (particularly American) from Eurasia, reveals Russia’s ambition to diminish U.S. influence in the region. Läs artikel