India and Pakistan began accession to a regional security group led by China and Russia on Friday, after two days of summits that Russian President Vladimir Putin held up as evidence Moscow is not isolated in the world.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), meeting in the Russian city of Ufa a day after the BRICS emerging economies held a summit there, said the invitation to the two Asian nations showed that a “multipolar” world was now emerging.
Those words are likely to have pleased Putin, who has said the US maintains an outdated vision of a unipolar world dominated by Washington. Putin also wants to show that Russia has not been weakened by Western sanctions over its role in the Ukraine crisis.
‘EVOLUTION’
“The evolution of the SCO is taking place at a complicated stage in the development of international relations and amid the emergence of a multipolar world,” the group said in a declaration after the meeting. “These processes are accompanied by increasing security challenges and threats, increasing uncertainty and instability in various regions of the world.”
The organization, which includes the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, is widely seen as a platform for Moscow and Beijing to project their influence in the region.
So far, it has not been a major force and relations between China and Russia have not developed as quickly as Moscow would like, observers said, despite agreement on a major gas supply deal last year.
However, Putin reportedly saw signs of unity between the group and the BRICS — Brazil, India, South Africa, China and Russia — with the latter agreeing to coordinate efforts to keep their economies stable, launching a development bank and agreeing on a currency pool.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the group’s expansion should serve as a “springboard” for it to become one of the most dynamic in the world.
“The time has come to reach out across the region,” Modi said. “We have everything we need to succeed.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Putin’s efforts would enhance the political and economic scope of the region.
ENERGY PRODUCERS
The addition of Pakistan and India, two nuclear-armed neighbors who have decades of tensions between them, could also help ease conflicts between New Delhi and Islamabad.
The nation’s leaders agreed in a separate meeting in Ufa that Modi would visit Pakistan next year.
Joining a group that includes energy producers such as Kazakhstan and Russia might have been a strong incentive for the two countries to join, analysts.
“India is particularly interested because it lacks direct access to Central Asia and it sees SCO membership as a way to get a better foothold on the region. SCO membership could better position India to benefit from Central Asia’s gas riches,” said Michael Kugelman, senior program associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Wilson Center in Washington. “In [the] SCO, India and Pakistan would not be dominant powers — China and Russia would retain that title.”
The group did not invite Iran to join, although the republic has long sought membership. The group said Tehran could join only after reaching a deal with world powers on its nuclear program.
With the addition of Iran, the group would control about a fifth of the world’s oil and represent nearly half of the global population.
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