Belarus full membership will boost cooperation and trade

The Republic of Belarus has been participating in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization since 2010 as a dialogue partner and since 2015 as an observer. On Sept 16, 2022, within the framework of a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a decision was made to initiate the procedure for Belarus to join the SCO. And in July, 2023, a memorandum of obligations for Belarus was signed to enable it to become a full member state of the SCO.

The Chambers of the National Assembly of Belarus adopted Law No 275 in July 2023"on the accession of the Republic of Belarus to international treaties within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization". The admission of Belarus as a full member of the SCO is scheduled at the 2024 SCO Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Self-determination of foreign policy

The accession to the SCO would be an important act of foreign policy self-determination for Belarus. In his speeches at the SCO summits, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has focused on the potential of the SCO, in particular, to stimulate trade and economic cooperation through industrial and technological cooperation, digital transformation, the green economy and other fields.

Belarus considers the SCO to be an important international platform for establishing specific mechanisms for promoting cooperation in the field of regional security and countering terrorism, extremism, organized crime, and advocates for strengthening the economic dimension of the SCO as the most important factor of stability in the Eurasian region.

First, the activation and expansion of the dialogue of cultures is one of the most effective ways of eradicating terrorism and violent extremism, separatism, and trafficking of drugs, weapons, nuclear and radioactive materials, organized crime and illegal migration. These challenges have become transnational issues. Cooperation has already been established in many areas of cultural and humanitarian cooperation in the format of inter-parliamentary interaction.

Second, in recent years there has been an expansion of the SCO security agenda. There is an urgent need to build a universal, comprehensive, inclusive, transparent infrastructure of indivisible and reliable security and sustainable growth in the region. Also, Belarus is open to cooperation and dialogue in order to ensure food, energy and information security.

And third, the creation of a common transportation network in the region covered by the SCO will ensure trans-boundary multimodal transport, and help develop the required transport infrastructure and system for integrated management of traffic flows using digital technologies. Belarus has many strengths for effective cooperation in the trade and economic sector (energy, information and technology and agriculture, for example), which will help address new challenges and threats in the economic sphere. This will help establish cooperation in the banking and financial spheres and create financial mechanisms within the SCO.

In the current geopolitical situation, Belarus needs easier access to international markets. Improving the common transport space, trans-boundary transport network, and coordinated development of highways, as well as diversifying the export potential of the Union State of Russia and Belarus and the Eurasian Economic Union in the SCO region is of interest to Minsk.

The most promising areas for Belarus' cooperation in the SCO are industries and technologies, digital transformation and artificial intelligence, the green economy and climate adaptation, development of peaceful nuclear energy for civil use, and the use of cost-effective and environmentally-friendly technologies, eliminating trade barriers.

Other promising areas of cooperation

The formation of a single market and a free trade area of the SCO would promote healthy competition for the products of member states and counter the protectionist and sanction policies, and trade wars of the United States-led West. It will also play a significant role in organizing multimodal transport, improving the transport infrastructure and transit potential.

Belarus' entry into the SCO will certainly strengthen relations with the organization's other member states in areas of mutual interest.

A relatively new area of cooperation is cross-border cooperation. Taking into account the increase in terrorist threats on the external borders of member states (those not shared by the SCO members), the level of interaction between border services should be increased.

It is also important to establish a mechanism for jointly safeguarding the security of the information space, in order to prevent threats to the political, economic and public security of the member states. There is also a need for the SCO to strive for the adoption by the United Nations of a "Rules of Conduct in the Field of Ensuring International Information Security" and based on this, work with other members of the international community to formulate unified international regulations for the information and communications sector, and establish cooperation in this area.

Need to safeguard Eurasian security

In the context of new global challenges and threats, the SCO regional structure has sufficient potential for the members to implement the required measures to safeguard the security of the SCO space. Safeguarding Eurasian security in the context of rising geopolitical tensions is becoming an urgent task for the SCO, with SCO participants expressing the desire to coordinate the organization's actions within the UN and in the Eurasian space with such structures as the Eurasian Economic Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and BRICS.

It is also necessary to strengthen interaction between the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Belarus has the experience of participating in CSTO peacekeeping missions and supports regional management of collective security systems through peacekeeping operations and military cooperation.

Military cooperation can be significantly strengthened by joint efforts to counter radicals and armed extremists within a country, and the introduction of uniform standards in the armed forces will facilitate compatibility and high-level training within and between the armed forces. This will ensure the situation in the region, despite all the complexities, remains stable and predictable, which in turn will boost cooperation in all areas described in the SCO Charter.

By becoming a full member of the SCO, Belarus will not only be able to strengthen its political position in the international arena, but also have the opportunity to promote its products in new markets. Belarus supports the SCO's policies to counter trade wars and curb protectionist measures.

Diversification of agricultural exports

Besides, Belarus will be able to use its future full SCO membership to diversify its agricultural exports by cooperating with other SCO members in accordance with principles of interaction among SCO countries in the field of smart agriculture and agro-innovation since the majority of SCO members are importers of agricultural products. And Belarus' participation in the SCO's food security program will allow it to supply its mineral fertilizers to the other SCO member states in large volumes.

Minsk can also envisage the economic benefits of intensifying its digital transformation, especially with the help of China, which is a leader in the production of computer and communications equipment, and on the strength of Belarus which has gained significant success in the development of electronic products.

An important area of modern trade is cross-border e-commerce. E-trading in the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange can help the country sell goods to the other SCO countries. As such, cross-border digital trade, and digitalization of transport networks and customs services should become a new area of cooperation among SCO member states.

Belarus also has huge potential when it comes to exporting engineering, machine tools and instrument-making products to the other SCO member states.

The author is deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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