SCO outshines NATO in valuing cooperation

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on Sept 11-12 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, is likely to see member states issue a joint statement to boost multilateral strategic cooperation.

The SCO was designed to promote open, pragmatic and transparent cooperation among member states for regional development, rather than as a political or military group. In its approach to cooperation, the SCO is fundamentally different from the US-led NATO, which was founded during the Cold War. NATO, an alliance borne out of the postwar confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, was established to strengthen military ties among its member states and to serve as a joint military force to reinforce the US' leadership across the globe.

The Sept 4 NATO summit in Wales, the United Kingdom, expressed great concern over the security situation in Europe and the Ukraine crisis. Vowing to extend more support to Ukraine through the "Readiness Action Plan", the summit was actually seeking to contain Russia.

In stark contrast, the SCO summit is unlikely to focus on NATO's sanctions against Russia despite the latter being a major member of the organization. Instead, it will lay equal emphasis on economic and security cooperation, because all SCO member states - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - believe in cooperation rather than confrontation.

The SCO promotes economic and cultural exchanges, and accords priority to trade facilitation in the fields of transportation, energy and finance. The "New Silk Road Economic Belt" proposed by President Xi Jinping last year - which covers 40 Asian and European countries - is an appropriate example of infrastructure interconnection among SCO member states.

Russia is facing a hostile West, which is accusing it of supporting Ukrainian rebels in eastern Ukraine. And the sanctions imposed by the West are hurting Russia's economy. New Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has complicated matters further by declaring that Ukraine would like to join the European Union and NATO, because this poses an immediate threat to Russia.