The year 2023, going down in history, became significant in the life of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO or the Organization) – Iran became its full member and a memorandum was signed on the obligations of Belarus necessary to obtain the status of a member state of the Organization. In addition, this year Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar and the UAE received dialogue partner status.

Let us recall that the SCO is a permanent regional international association, the creation of which was announced on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai. Over the years of its existence, the Organization has become one of the most authoritative and influential international associations, which makes a significant contribution to the stable and progressive development of the Eurasian region. Today, the SCO represents about a third of world GDP, 60% of the territory of Eurasia and 42% of the population of the entire planet.

The 23^RD meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, held on July 4 in New Delhi in the format of a videoconference, summed up the development of this organization to date and outlined prospects for the development of the association for the future. All member states of the organization (India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) took part in the summit. Belarus, Iran and Mongolia were invited as observers. Turkmenistan participated as a guest. The event was also attended by the heads of the SCO Secretariat and the Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) of the Organization.

One of the main results of the SCO summit was the expansion of the association: it officially announced the entry of Iran, which became the ninth member of the Organization. At the SCO summit, Belarus also played an important role, which became closer to joining the organization – a memorandum of accession obligations was signed, which was later approved by the Belarusian parliament and signed by the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko. It is believed that Belarus will become a full member of the SCO at the summit in Astana in July 2024.

The organization’s Secretary General Zhang Ming called Iran’s accession and the signing of a memorandum of commitments by Belarus significant progress. According to him, the number of countries that are knocking on the doors of the SCO “in the hope of joining this big family” is increasing. This, as Zhang Ming noted, indicates that the goals and norms professed by the association have been recognized by the international community.

In turn, SCO Deputy Secretary General Grigory Logvinov, summing up the results of the outgoing year, said that today the Organization has turned into a transregional association. “The SCO was created 20 years ago in a certain format, in certain regional and global realities, over the past decades the SCO has undergone fundamental changes. It was a fairly local association whose agenda was mainly focused on Central Asia.

Now the SCO is a gigantic trans-regional organization. The organization’s agenda is no longer regional; it already has many global aspects. Interest in the SCO is not falling; the expansion of the number of states interacting with the SCO in one way or another contains enormous potential for cooperation,” Logvinov said at a meeting with the Press Club held at the Organization’s Secretariat on December 12.

It should be noted that the summit in New Delhi once again demonstrated the progressive process of strengthening the multipolar world and the increased interest in the Organization from other countries, including from Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. According to many experts, the 23rd SCO summit became a kind of verdict on the unipolar world, since it showed in which direction new institutions of international cooperation will develop and what principles will determine the foundation of the future world order.

In addition to global problems, at the Organization’s summit in New Delhi, significant attention was paid to economic issues. In particular, the Chinese government called on the SCO member states to increase the share of national currencies in trade payments between the countries of the association, and Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his readiness to provide partners with access to the Chinese market and share development experience.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his speech at the summit, noted that over 80% of commercial transactions between Russia and China are carried out in rubles and yuan. He also noted that the share of the Russian currency in export transactions with all SCO countries in 2022 exceeded 40%. According to the Russian leader, Russia is taking an active part in the implementation of the SCO road map on the transition to national currencies in mutual trade, approved at the previous summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. “It is important to continue this work, to take coordinated measures to remove regulatory barriers, establish the necessary payment infrastructure, and create an independent financial system. The further strengthening of regional integration will undoubtedly be facilitated by the implementation of the SCO economic development strategy until 2030”, Putin emphasized.

The SCO summit in New Delhi also showed that today the Organization is becoming an alternative for those states that are not satisfied with the approach and control of the West, primarily the United States. Nowadays, the SCO is a platform where countries can discuss a variety of issues of interaction and development. At the end of the summit, its participants adopted the New Delhi Declaration, agreeing to approve “new comprehensive approaches to promoting fairer and more effective international cooperation.” An important part of the document was the block of economic issues within the framework of the SCO Economic Development Strategy for the period until 2030. Among the priority areas are the digital economy, high technology and innovation, the development of a network of roads and railways and energy security, as well as cooperation in the field of education, cultural exchange and tourism.

However, the outgoing year in the life of the Organization was not only marked by the summit in New Delhi. Thus, in Bishkek on October 26, a meeting of the heads of government of the SCO was held, at which it was once again noted that today the Organization is a dynamically developing region of the world, which is receiving increased attention from other states. Particular attention at the meeting was paid to security issues. In particular, the positive role of the SCO RATS was noted, which “provides the necessary assistance to the cooperation of competent authorities in the fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism.” For example, on September 1, 2023, RATS and the CIS held the first joint “Eurasia-Antiterror” exercises. It can also be noted that over the past two years, the security forces of the SCO countries have identified 73 cells of international terrorist organizations, prevented 69 terrorist attacks and uncovered more than 13 thousand terrorist financing channels.

In the past year, within the framework of the SCO, under the auspices of India, a whole series of events took place on a wide range of issues of cooperation between the states that are members of the association. By the way, India transferred its chairmanship in the Organization for the next year to Kazakhstan.

In conclusion, we note that in the future, the SCO, along with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), can indeed become not only a powerful financial and economic pole of the future multipolar world, but also a serious political decision-making center, since the world needs a new economic and political ethics, in strict compliance with international law.