The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be an economic
powerhouse and a major global force throughout this century, a
Canadian scholar noted on Thursday.
Michael Berk, who is with the Canadian Institute of
International Affairs, expressed the views in an article posted at
the globeandmail.com.
"Any entity whose purpose, like the SCO, is promoting stability,
cooperation and economic development in a region consisting of such
pivotal countries as India and China, as well as such resource-rich
states as Russia and Kazakhstan, will be a powerhouse of economic
activity and a major global force throughout this century," Berk
wrote.
The SCO groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan and has four observers -- Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran
and India.
Since 2001, member states have negotiated and signed agreements
of cooperation in areas including education and culture, trade and
infrastructure development, energy, technology, joint military
exercises and combating terrorism, cross-border drugs and arms
trafficking
"The strength and speed with which these common goals are being
pursued vary -- but the extent to which a common direction is
discernible in this group of sovereign states shows the SCO is
making progress in building regional consensus," Berk pointed
out.
"The SCO is important. The Central Asian region is important,"
he said. "Indeed, given that the Central Asian region may well be
the most important economic region in the second half of this
century, it is imperative Canadians make the effort to know more
about the region, the tensions and the consensus-mechanisms."
"Central Asia will be a powerhouse in the coming decades and our
future, as a trading nation, will be closely aligned with this
less-known region. The time to act, the time to acquaint ourselves
with the new global realities is now," Berk concluded.
(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2006)