China (AP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will accelerate construction of the SCO Development Bank on Monday. Shanghai Cooperative Organization At Tianjin, we are looking to expand the influence and scope of our organization.
“As the global situation now becomes more complicated and turbulent, member states face more difficult safety and development responsibilities,” Xi said in a statement to the forum. He has pledged $1.4 billion in loans over the next three years for members of the SCO, not specifically designated by the new bank.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among the leaders of dozens of countries met as members of the SCO. The group, originally considered US influence in Central Asia, has been growing in size and influence over the years, but remains primarily a security forum.
With an emphasis on adding banks and providing loans, XI is looking to expand the scope of its organization.
Message of China
“He wants to provide an alternative world order as the US-led world order is declining so much. This is the main story,” said Alfred Wu, professor at Lee Kuan Yew’s School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
XI also said it would “oppose Cold War thinking, bloc-based conflict, bullying, and protect the international system with the United Nations to its core,” and “protect an equal, orderly multipolar world, comprehensive economic globalization, and promote the creation of a more fair and rational global governance system.”
Xi’s comments were consistent with past comments from China. Opposition to the Cold War mentality is reference to America’s tough approach to China and withdrawal of funding from some UN agencies. But at this point, Wu said China’s consistency is a message.
Founded in 2001, SCOs include Russia, Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan and Mongolia are observer states, with 14 countries serving as “dialogue partners” including several from the Middle East.
The summit will arrive a few days away Military Parade In Beijing, where China invited its allies and neighbors.
Focus on conflict
On Sunday, Xi met with Modi I vowed to resolve their differences About the border disputes that led to a freeze in relations in 2020. The conflict unfolds three points near Bhutan at the vast borders of northern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh region in India.
President Putin arrives at the summit on Sunday and will be attending the parade on Wednesday for the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender. Modi doesn’t stay for the parade. North Korean leader Kim Jong, who is not present at the SCO summit, will be attending the military parade with leader Min Ang Fröning, the leader of Myanmar’s military government.
Putin spoke to XI on Sunday, and the two were scheduled to take place on Tuesday ahead of the bilateral conversation. He updated Chinese leaders on Russian US talks about the Ukrainian War that took place in Alaska last month.
“I hope that the understanding we reached at the recent Russian-American Summit in Alaska will take this direction and pave the way for peace in Ukraine,” Putin said.
Development policy is a major part of the recent message. Putin said Russia and China are jointly “contrary to discriminatory sanctions” that hurt socioeconomic development around the world in a written interview issued by China’s official news agency on Saturday.
He said Russia, along with its Chinese partners, supports reforms to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“It is essential to end the use of finances as a tool for neocolonialism to counter the interests of the majority of the world,” he said.
Security is still important
China is eager to see SCO play a bigger role in the global stage, but it remains to be seen how effective the organization will be. The focus of the past has been to support member states’ security initiatives. China said the SCO is effective in combating what is called three forces: terrorism, separatism and extremism.
These threats were cited in 2018 after sweeping more than a million Uyghur, Kazakhs and other Muslim minority members into camps, prisons and other detention facilities.
“Their counterterrorism exercises are not about countering terrorism in itself, but about countering the threat to the authoritarian regime,” said Derek Grossman, professor of international relations at the University of Southern California.
“There are organizations that compete,” Grossman said. “If anything, BRICS may have much better luck in competing with the West, as it involves major economies.”
One thing is clear, he said, even if SCO Summit’s reach and influence were ultimately limited.
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Beijing AP researcher Shihuan Chen and Hong Kong author Kanis Leung contributed to this report.
