The SCO and Afghanistan: View from Uzbekistan
By IAR Desk
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will be holding its 20th summit on 16-17 September, in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.
The organisation’s member-states are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India,, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
High on the agenda will be the crisis in Afghanistan, which borders four of the SCO membrr states – Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and China. Afghanistan has observer status and has applied for membership to the organisation.
The SCO, which has often been referred to as the eastern NATO, was founded 20 years ago as a response to the Afghan crisis then and combatting terrorism is a core objective of the organization. As such, the Regional Anti-terror Structure (RATS) was instituted in Tashkent, the capital of member-state Uzbekistan.
So, can the SCO deal with the Afghan crisis?
Here is a view from Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has a direct border with Afghanistan and therefore a huge stake in the country’s stability. Uzbekistan views Afghanistan as vital to its connectivity needs to enhance trade. Hence, it has undertaken a number of infrastructure development projects in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan also shares ethnic and linguistic ties with Afghanistan’s Uzbek community and has been at the forefront in administering humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Besides, some members of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are known to be in Afganistan. Uzbekistan has played host to the Taliban and hosted intra-Afghan talks earlier. It has been fortifying its border defences recently in the wake of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
According to Uzbek analyst Farkhad Tolipov, the SCO has limited options in Afghanistan.
“The member states of the SCO do not have a common position regarding the Taliban: some states consider it a terrorist organisation, the others don’t. Hence, the position of the member states probably would also be ambiguous,” says Tolipov.
“Next, the situation in Afghanistan itself is so chaotic that hardly any country or organisation would like to interfere in it. A few centres of resistance to the Taliban have appeared and the war has just started.
Hence, all that the SCO can do right now is to make some diplomatic efforts, but these can also turn out to be ineffective as such [diplomatic] efforts are being made in Doha but with little consequence. ”
Finally, Tolipov says that the situation in Afghanistan should be analysed through the prism of the war on international terrorism. “The situation in Afghanistan should be analysed from the perspective of the war against international terrorism. This is not possible without the participation of the USA, EU and other powers. That is why, in this respect, the SCO has very limited options [to do anything in Afghanistan].”
