Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Right before the G8, another group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, met in Kazakhstan to discuss issues related to Central Asia. The members, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan welcomed current observer Mongolia, and new observers Pakistan, India and Iran. What started originally as the Shanghai Five, has suddenly created an interesting Asia-based alliance and power center. It's not all peaches and cream, though.
One of the urgent issues they addressed was the presence of Western troops in member states, and pushed for the US and France to have a timetable to get their troops out of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. After 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq saw these countries provide airbases and logistical centers for Western troops. This obviously concerns folks for which this is their backyard, like Russia and China. The US, unsurprisingly, rejected the idea of a set timetable.
But there is tension within the alliance too, with China basically reinforcing its stand against the "G4" plan for more permanent seats on the United Nations Security Countil. That doesn't make India a happy part of that group.
There is also the prospect of the central Asia countries going it alone, something Kazakhstan's president has in mind. From the right-wing Washington Times:
One of the urgent issues they addressed was the presence of Western troops in member states, and pushed for the US and France to have a timetable to get their troops out of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. After 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq saw these countries provide airbases and logistical centers for Western troops. This obviously concerns folks for which this is their backyard, like Russia and China. The US, unsurprisingly, rejected the idea of a set timetable.
But there is tension within the alliance too, with China basically reinforcing its stand against the "G4" plan for more permanent seats on the United Nations Security Countil. That doesn't make India a happy part of that group.
There is also the prospect of the central Asia countries going it alone, something Kazakhstan's president has in mind. From the right-wing Washington Times:
Mr. Nazarbaev would like to create a Central Asian Union, which would include the five post-Soviet countries of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Such a union, long encouraged by the U.S., could serve as the springboard toward a common market and diminish the region's strategic dependency on China and Russia.As we've seen before, the US just can't seem to keep its fingers out of any place where there's oil to be had. Surely the US is watching very carefully the possible chumminess developing in the middle of Asia.
