By Yu Sui?

This year's annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is due to be held in Russian city of Yekaterinburg today. President Hu Jintao will attend the two-day summit, the ninth of it kind, and the first meeting of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) leaders.

Since its founding in 2001, the SCO, a regional organization that includes China, Russia and four central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, has maintained a good development momentum and accumulated rich experience of promoting regional economic and security cooperation.

The Yekaterinburg summit will offer a platform for SCO leaders to review the results of its cooperation so far. The enduring vigor of the organization may be attributed to its founding political principles, including adherence to the principles of peace, cooperation, openness and not targeting a third party. Besides, its principles such as mutual trust and benefit, equality, coordination and respect for each other's diversity as well as aspiration for a common development, the "Shanghai spirit" has also contributed much to the organization's steady advancement over the past eight years.

These principles and the Shanghai spirit, in tune with multi-polar globalization, are a reflection of Eurasia's demands for political and economic development and have effectively maintained the core interests of SCO members.

The SCO has fully played its part in promoting political, security, economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation. Member states have held unrestricted consultations on major issues and effectively coordinated their stances, thus enhancing mutual trust.

In the realm of security, a top priority for the SCO, members have also achieved a great deal in the battle against terrorist, separatist and extremist activities as well as drug trafficking, weapons sales and cross-border crime. All countries have made huge efforts in pushing for long-term economic cooperation programs and concrete projects. The cooperation took the form of effective exchanges between members in the fields of culture, education, healthcare, sports, tourism, and science and technology. A number of non-SCO members, with increasing interest in the organization, have actively participated in a variety of its activities and mechanisms.

At Yekaterinburg, SCO leaders are expected to discuss ways to deal with the complex international and regional situations. SCO members are expected to sign the Yekaterinburg Declaration, a joint communiqu and other agreements. In the context of the continuing global financial crisis, the summit provides a chance to evolve a common standpoint and initiate concerted action to deepen cooperation.

Ahead of the Yekaterinburg summit, the SCO held an economic meeting aimed at deeper coordination and cooperation among members to ward off the worst effects of the financial crisis. To this end, member-states discussed how to strengthen cooperation for steady economic growth, greater investment and more integration of financial and insurance mechanisms in the region. It is expected that the SCO leadership will hold intensive consultations at the highest level on ways to deal with the ongoing crisis. SCO members have already worked out their own counter-crisis plans and taken a series of measures within bilateral and multilateral frameworks to minimize the impact of the financial crisis on social and economic development.

As a regional organization largely dominated by a political agenda so far, the SCO has witnessed smooth cooperation in the security realm as terrorism is a common concern. Yet economic cooperation has made slower progress. That is because economic concerns are divergent and, therefore, the priorities different in bilateral and multilateral economic affairs.

The Afghanistan issue is expected to be high on the agenda at this summit. Considering that the United States has shifted its anti-terror focus from Iraq to the central Asian nation, the SCO faces the question of how to handle its relations with the sole superpower on this issue. Although the expansion of SCO membership is not on the agenda now, the possibility cannot be ruled out. The SCO is now preparing documents on procedures to absorb new members. In addition to its six formal members, the SCO has four observers, namely, Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran.

United by the common urge to maintain regional security, promote economic development, build mutual trust and pursue new developmental bonds, this SCO summit is expected to take further steps for strengthening unity among its members.

Since its establishment, the SCO has suffered setbacks, too, in the process of its development. The US extending its military presence in Central Asia, after the launch of its anti-terror campaign in the region and political change in some Central Asian countries once cast a shadow over prospects of the SCO. However, the organization has endured these and a raft of other severe tests to move forward with a new vitality.

After eight years of development and exploration, the SCO has emerged stronger through testing times and is now poised for more rapid progress.

The author is a researcher with the Research Center of Contemporary World.

(China Daily June 15, 2009)