China Research

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) belongs to the international conventions that are hardly known in our part of the world. Though having been founded already in 2001, not very much has been reported from the 24 Heads of State Council meetings before the 25^th SCO convention that took place recently in Tinjian.  The SCO Tianjin Summit 2025 has probably been the most important of its kind so far, due to the list of prominent participants and the burning international conflicts.

Long-term aspects more important than short-term results

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), is an intergovernmental organization that has been started in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan aiming at peace and cooperation among its member states with the intention to promote what then was called a new fair political and economic order. Later on, also India, Pakistan and Iran joined the organization.

Totally, the SCO also includes quite a number of observer states from the Eurasian region. Around half of the global population is represented in the SCO which considers itself as an alternative to corresponding Western organizations .

According to the SCO, its main goals are defined as follows:

#  “to strengthen mutual trust, friendship and good-neighborliness between the Member States;

#  to encourage the effective cooperation between the Member States in such spheres as politics, trade, economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, etc;

#  to jointly ensure and maintain peace, security and stability in the region; and

# to promote a new democratic, fair and rational international political and economic international order”.

When reading these points above, one can easily observe their general and unbinding character – whatever this may mean. But now more co-operation among the member countries seems to be strived. This would allow China – the strongest member of the SCO – to pave the way for the continued development of the SCO (see https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/618965), certainly in line with its international long-term strategy. A parallel long-term strategy of this kind is also visible in other parts of the globe, for example in Africa, South America and the Pacific area. Russia’s role in the SCO seems to remain limited compared to China’s dominant position. India’s future impact on the SCO still appears unclear but closer relations to China seem to be on the cards. Trump’s tariffs could favor such a development even more than so far.    

Conclusion: China’s interest in the future of the SCO underlines again its long-term ambitions in the world – for reasons of political influence, new markets for its exports and the future supply with important commodities. By looking somewhat deeper into the SCO, we have got another example of China’s unique capacity to apply both short-term and long-term perspectives at the same time. A phenomenon that uses to come back regularly and that often is neglected in Western countries and companies..

Hubert Fromlet
Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University