Russia’s Dmitry Trenin Explains, Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit ‘Will Help Forge the New World Order’

Aug. 30, 2022 (EIRNS)— In an Aug. 30 article for RT about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), entitled “This Russia-China Founded Bloc Represents Half the World’s Population and Will Help Forge the New World Order,” Russian foreign affairs expert Dmitry Trenin discusses the role the SCO will play in developing the world, summarizing in the kicker,  “The international system is going through a deep crisis and the group is poised to achieve greater relevance.” Trenin is a Research Professor at the Higher School of Economics and a Lead Research Fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) and he is also a member of the Russian International Affairs Council.

This year’s SCO Heads of State Council will take place on Sept. 15-16 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, hosted and chaired by Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Trenin depicts how the SCO, “at the start of its third decade ... is steadily getting more active and becoming more attractive to others. In 2001, it started at six”—China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; in 2017, the membership grew to eight with the addition of India and Pakistan, “with another 20 countries or so listed as observers, dialogue partners, or in the process of joining. Iran’s accession this year is spurring the interest of Turkey and a number of Arab countries, notably the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar. The SCO community could potentially include much of the Eurasian continent between Belarus and Cambodia.”

With the financial system in the West collapsing, and its imposition of sanctions especially against Russia, but also Iran, and potentially China, the SCO has become a center for discussion for alternative credit arrangements and trade payments, as well as development projects.

He explained:

“Economic development has long been featured as one of the key areas of SCO cooperation. China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been followed by the North-South Corridor linking Russia, Iran, the Arab countries and India....

“A new impetus for Eurasian interaction has been created in the post-Ukraine environment by the seizure by the West of half of Russia’s currency reserves. The central issue that has entered a number of countries’ strategic calculus is the reliability of the U.S. dollar-based global financial system. Increasingly, national currencies of the SCO member states and observers, such as the Chinese yuan, the Indian rupee, the Turkish lira, the Iranian rial, as well as the Russian ruble are being used in trade between these countries. In parallel, national payment systems of these and other countries are becoming connected, allowing them to conduct transactions directly, rather than via Washington or its allies....”

He concludes:

“While the future of the world order is being decided in the ongoing major power competition, a practical way of altering the situation to better serve the interests of the growing number of autonomous players is through developing organizations such as the SCO—independent, non-hegemonic, and inclusive. Potentially, the SCO could become a model for the 21st century order in the world’s most important regional space.”