The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was formed 25 years ago by China, Russia and four Central Asian states as a security forum and an alternative to Western-aligned organizations like the Group of Seven (G7) forum that brings together seven of the world's leading advanced economies, including the United States.
The SCO has wanted to expand its scope and influence in recent years, pledging development and financial assistance, and earlier this week, the leaders of China, Russia and India gathered with other heads of state in Kyrgyzstan for a meeting.
Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, says it is fortunate that India is part of the SCO. The country practices strategic autonomy and multi-alignment using its presence in the group to signal to Washington that it has alternative diplomatic partners while maintaining a vital, independent partnership with Washington.
"There's a lot of handwringing about the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but India has not permitted the SCO to be used as an anti-American organization," Chang notes. "That's China's purpose. India has frustrated this, so we should be happy that India is there."
India works with the U.S. to secure great-power support, but it avoids becoming overly dependent on any single global power. Some say New Delhi is already defying U.S. pressure, and Chang knows India is not always going to align with our policies.
"But I wouldn't worry too much about the SCO meeting," he tells AFN.
Due to severe structural, demographic, and economic pressures threatening their long-term global power, he says, "China and Russia are declining states." Russia faces acute decline driven by military and economic isolation, and China is often viewed through the lens of a "peaking power" facing a structural slowdown.
"Only the United States of the three superpowers is getting stronger," Chang submits. "One can say that there's really now only one superpower, and that's us."
President Masoud Pezeshkian represented Iran, which is also part of the SCO, at the recent two-day gathering of member states. Chinese President Xi Jinping gave him a brief audience, and he held direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other regional leaders.
The bloc signed the "Bishkek Declaration," which condemned military strikes and Western sanctions against Iran and backed its sovereignty, but analysts and official statements confirm that the SCO's role remains strictly non-military.
