Yuri Veselov, military observer

In addition to the clearly obvious positive breakthrough results of the last meeting of the SCO heads of state, one of the important features of the summit was the military-political situation in which this forum was held. Undoubtedly, the most acute background was the Russian-led Special Military Operation (SVO) in the Donbass to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, as well as the aggravation of relations between China and the United States over Taiwan. It should be noted that Washington and Brussels followed with great attention the preparations for the meeting in Samarkand, predicting, not without reason, its effective results in terms of attracting new participants and internal “cleansing of the ballast”.

In this regard, the day before, the White House launched propaganda and organizational work aimed at reducing the significance of the results of the upcoming summit, without hiding the goals of preventing further strengthening of Russia’s influence in the states of Central and Central Asia and splitting the unity of the SCO.

The first touchstone was the September 5 terrorist attack against the Russian Consulate General in Kabul, which killed two Russian diplomats. The international Muslim terrorist group ISIS, banned in Russia, claimed responsibility for the crime. The government of the country in the person of the Taliban Islamic Movement (ITM, included in the list of terrorist organizations in the Russian Federation) took the blame for the admitted weakness in ensuring the security of the Russian mission in Afghanistan.

The purpose of the attack was to prevent rapprochement between Moscow and Kabul, which has recently been actively negotiating to join the SCO and remove the “terrorist stigma” from Afghanistan and its leadership. At the same time, the Taliban were engaged in intensive and fruitful negotiations with representatives of the Chinese government. Indicative is the fact that only the embassies of the Russian Federation and China in Kabul are guarded by Afghan Special Forces.

The leadership of the internal security forces of the Interim Government of Afghanistan has irrefutable information that underground ISIS cells in the country are funded by the US and Britain and act in their interests. At the same time, the Declaration adopted on September 16 in Samarkand for the first time paid great attention to the development of comprehensive cooperation with Afghanistan, the provision of economic assistance and political support to this country to overcome difficulties in the formation of power, and strengthen interstate ties.

Particular attention in the final document is drawn to the need to preserve and strengthen the unity of the organization, respect for the state interests of each participant, while strictly observing the principle of non-interference in its internal affairs. For the first time, the expediency of establishing a collective armed defense against terrorism and extremism was very clearly noted. The threats from the West and the new rules of the world order, which are incompatible with the principles of international law, are being imposed on them under the guise of “democracy and the fight against autocracy”.

The forum in Samarkand overshadowed the armed border conflict between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – members of the SCO and the CSTO, which led to the death of a large number of military personnel on both sides and the resettlement of more than 170 thousand civilians of Kyrgyzstan from the zone of military clashes. The parties accuse each other of unleashing the conflict. Only a legitimate question arises: what goals was Dushanbe guided by, providing the territory of its country for conducting the military exercise “Commonwealth-2022” under the auspices of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces, in which Kazakhstan participated?

Not everything is clear with this member of the SCO either. Recently, American heavy military transport aircraft have been frequenting Astana. In the Kazakh capital, they explain that they allegedly “deliver diplomatic mail” for the US embassy … But for what reason, the Kazakh government is already reducing the number of schools where lessons are taught in Russian, and in the next year or two this language in educational institutions be completely abolished? Why have more than 30,000 Russians left Kazakhstan since the beginning of 2022? Why do American biological laboratories continue to operate on Kazakh territory?

On the eve of Samarkand, an armed conflict suddenly broke out on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As in the case of the Asian republics, the parties mutually blame each other for the incident. Armenia demanded urgent intervention by the CSTO and accused it of inaction. The Armenian leader decided not to participate in the SCO meeting because of the “conflict on the border”.

True, this did not prevent him from organizing a reception with great fanfare for Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US Congress, who provoked the aggravation of relations between China and Taiwan, and who is an implacable hater of Russia and everything Russian. The present-day Yerevan has not previously been distinguished by “selfless love” for Moscow, and now, after the American woman’s statement that she will facilitate the provision of US military-technical assistance to Armenia, it is difficult to predict the future participation of this country in the CSTO and the SCO.

Samarkand-2022 was held in a difficult and acute situation. Probably, this was to be expected: it is the difficulties that reveal the weak and strong places of the parties in the international organization. And yet, the main and especially important achievement of the summit was the progressive expansion of the SCO, the strengthening of its unity, including on the basis of a possible cleansing of renegades.