Why Pakistan is Desperately Seeking Full-Fledged Membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

CSS 2008 Solved Current Affairs Past Papers | Pakistan Seeking Full-Fledged Membership in SCO

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Question breakdown

This question has one part, i.e., to find the reasons why Pakistan wants to join SCO.

Outline

1-Introduction

2-Historical Context and Strategic Importance of SCO

3-Pakistan’s Pursuit of SCO Membership

• ✓Strengthening Diplomatic and Strategic Alliances
• ✓Advancing Economic Integration and Trade
• ✓Collaborating on Regional Security Efforts
• ✓Securing Sustainable Energy Resources
• ✓Leading Regional Stability and Economic Cooperation

4-Expected Impact of SCO Membership on Pakistan

• ✓Economic Advantages
• ✓Enhanced Regional Influence
• ✓Security Benefits

5-Challenges Pakistan Faces in Joining the SCO

• ✓Regional Geopolitical Complexities
• ✓Domestic Political and Economic Hurdles
• ✓External Pressures

6-Critical Analysis

7-Conclusion

Introduction

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected and multipolar, regional organizations are making an increasingly significant contribution to creating a stable and secure world. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has become a noteworthy alliance encompassing major powers across Asia, such as China and Russia, with a standard view of regional security, economic growth, and counter-terrorism. Entry of Pakistan into full SCO membership would provide strategic, economic and security-linked benefits given the fast-changing regional environment. Pakistan’s foreign and strategic partnership history has always been to engage with Asian states for more substantial alignment. However, it has eyed the SCO to press for economic integration while promoting trade and cooperation in important security matters. Pakistan would provide the entire membership to tap the sustainable energy resources needed for economic stability and assume a leadership role in regional cooperation and stability. Nevertheless, apart from the direct advantages, Pakistan can reap broader economic and regional influence advantages and security benefits from the shared counter-terrorism efforts. Nonetheless, Pakistan has numerous obstacles to pursuing this ambition: high politics on the dynamic and intellectually complex regional landscape, domestic economic and political constraints, and external forces originating from the global powers for whom Asia is their backyard. Analyzing the motivations behind these actions, the likely impacts and challenges of playing a role in the SCO provides us with an idea of why South Asia’s sole member on the world’s stage has found membership in the SCO to be necessary in order to enhance its position on the regional stage. On this basis, the country’s desire to join the SCO is just an expression of the country’s future robust economy and geopolitical security.

Historical Context and Strategic Importance of SCO

In 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was founded to encourage regional security and economic and political stability among its member states: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and China. However, as the years passed, SCO gained strategic importance for harmony in many spheres—security, counter-terror, and economic development—through this platform. Moreover, it is one of the most influential regional alliances in Asia. The organization has placed itself on combating the three evils — terrorism, separatism and extremism — and the priority areas for Pakistan are Central and South Asia, at which place shared security threats too are increasingly addressed by the organization. However, the SCO has also advocated economic integration and connectivity. Member states, therefore, gain access to emerging markets, energy resources and investments in their infrastructure. The SCO is good news for Pakistan, which has sought solid alliances in Asia to elevate its diplomatic bargaining power and benefit from cooperative measures in security and economic areas. Security, stability, terrorism and economic development in the region are ‘Pakistan’s SCO playground.’ Pakistan is on the side, and China and Russia are playing in the region

Pakistan’s Pursuit of SCO Membership

• ✓ Strengthening Diplomatic and Strategic Alliances

One of the main aims of Pakistan’s objective in joining the SCO is to strengthen diplomatic and strategic alliances with key players such as China and Russia. The SCO is Pakistan’s latest foreign policy strategy to expand its relationship base away from the historic Western alliances and provide a strategic channel for closer reaching regions. This puts Pakistan at the backdoor of a closer engagement with China, with which it has a longstanding alliance, and Russia, which has recently been interested in expanding its South Asian partnerships.

• ✓ Advancing Economic Integration and Trade

Pakistan’s Membership aspiration to the SCO would get incentives like economic integration and access to new markets. The SCO will help Pakistan enter new markets and export opportunities in Central Asia. Pakistan has a unique focus on raising the level of trade and investment, which is also the organization’s goal. However, they are also spearheaded by China’s Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which adjoins Pakistan into regional economic addition arenas. Besides, funding for joint projects by Pakistan, which would go away in accelerating Pakistan’s economy, would also be provided with Pakistan’s membership to the SCO, and Pakistan would also have economic connectivity with neighbouring economies.

• ✓ Collaborating on Regional Security Efforts

Given that one of the SCO’s orientations is on security, this framework has very much an interest for Pakistan, given its history of both terrorism and regional instability. Pakistan’s association with the alliance would benefit by being a part of joint anti-terror initiatives and mutually sharing intelligence on the security challenges of Central and South Asia. The SCO framework would contribute to building capacity in Pakistan to fight terrorism, extremism, and other security threats, leading to a secure environment at home and the region at large.

• ✓ Securing Sustainable Energy Resources

With persistent energy shortages in Pakistan and its dependence on imported fuels, it is concerned about energy security. The fact that Central Asian states have plentiful natural gas and oil resources can offer more access to energy resources for an SCO membership. Another area in which Pakistan can participate is in energy cooperation agreements and infrastructure projects aimed at securing reasonably priced and sustainable energy supplies instead of using increasingly distant and expensive energy sources.

• ✓ Leading Regional Stability and Economic Cooperation

Pakistan’s admission to the SCO comports its desire to participate actively in regional stability and economic cooperation. Participating in multilateral efforts to tackle common problems, Pakistan will be able to contribute to the stability of the region threatened by the political volatility and the economic disparity that permeates parts of this region. More significant membership would be essential in improving Pakistan’s standing in Asia as a stronger voice in issues yet to come within the regional agenda, policies and initiatives to consolidate Asia into a collective and continuous regional environment.

Expected Impact of SCO Membership on Pakistan

• ✓ Economic Advantages

Membership in SCO provides Pakistan with several economic benefits, none more than from trade and investment. For example, markets in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are emerging markets, and Pakistan can draw on them for a broader export base. However, Pakistan’s trade volume with Central Asia was modest in 2008, with exports only about $23 million. With full SCO membership, Pakistan would take full advantage of initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Relative to the country’s economic growth, this project, expected to inject up to 700,000 jobs, is only a drop in the ocean. Opportunities created by these drivers can help Pakistan develop sustainably for economic growth and foster more excellent regional connectivity.

• ✓ Enhanced Regional Influence

Full membership in the SCO would elevate Pakistan’s regional influence to a level similar to that of big powers such as China and Russia. It would give Pakistan a more active role in determining SCO policies on critical issues of interest to Pakistan, including regional security, counter-terrorism and economic cooperation. Nevertheless, if one can ensure Pakistan’s prime position within the organization, it would perhaps bolster the country’s diplomatic standing in Asia and work out ways to bring about some elements of Asia’s regional stability and strengthen the ties with key allies. For Pakistan, a full membership would give its voice to a giant table and harmonize its strategic priorities with the other heavyweight countries in the region.

• ✓ Security Benefits

The most crucial advantages within the SCO framework are security cooperation and counter-terrorism, which the country has faced for decades. Therefore, Pakistan has been a frontline state in combating terrorism with a long history of dealing with constraints to security at home and along its borders. Membership in the SCO would help these efforts by providing access to joint counter-terrorism exercises and intelligence-sharing mechanisms. Member states use SCO’s “Peace Mission” collective exercises on terrorism, separatism and extremism to prepare collective responses. Yet by doing so, Pakistan could leap, fostering a more secure home with capacity to meet regional security challenges and a more stable region tout court.

Challenges Pakistan Faces in Joining the SCO

• ✓ Regional Geopolitical Complexities

Having one of the trickier geopolitics in South and Central Asia, Pakistan’s drive to be a member of the SCO ranks among the main challenges. As a member state of SCO, India and China, with their regional conflicts of interests, can hinder the cohesion of this organization. By including India as an SCO member, however, more problems are introduced for Pakistan because embedded historical tension between these two countries threatens to diminish the critical ability of the SCO to hold conversations about security and cooperation. For Pakistan, negotiating these regional rivalries while attempting to use the SCO (in times of diplomatic tension) will be challenging.

• ✓ Domestic Political and Economic Hurdles

Although the SCO membership can be exploited to the fullest extent, some obstacles, such as Pakistan’s internal political and economic landscape, prevent it from achieving this goal. Despite economic promise, reflected in a GDP growth rate of about 6% in the mid-2000s, Pakistan grew constrained by political instability, inflation, and an energy crisis. Governing challenges and limited ability in these issues restrict Pakistan’s full participation in SCO-led projects and activities. Besides, Pakistan must build consensus on foreign policy priorities, including SCO’s role, because of shifting internal dynamics.

• ✓ External Pressures

Lastly, Pakistan is also under pressure from other non-SCO countries, especially the United States, with which it has most of its relations, diplomatic and military. The importance of South Asia to the US means that it has interests in the region that sometimes run contrary to those of SCO members, particularly China and Russia. With Pakistan looking to deepen its ties to regional member states in the SCO, it must manage its relationship with its Western allies without risking strain on diplomats. Given the US view of the SCO as a counterweight to Western influence, there may be subtle pressure on Pakistan to restrict its participation in SCO-related activities that cross into Chinese or Russian terrain too closely. Pakistani diplomacy, attempting to join SCO, has to walk a precarious tightrope without sacrificing the alliances it has built up.

Critical Analysis

To critically analyze, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) instance for complete membership acts as a clear marker of a fast-transforming reconfiguration toward a new dynamic and fundamental reorientation of the strategic priorities of Pakistan. Joining SCO fits Pakistan’s strategy insofar as it has become attractive in improving its diplomatic and economic relationship with the vitally critical Asian powers of China and Russia, and in the second place to tap economic opportunities and a security partnership. This SCO alignment allows Pakistan to release itself from its old choices and indulge in a more variable foreign policy to reduce its dependence on Western powers. However, there are inherent challenges for the country on the way to full integration into the SCO. The SCO is a geopolitical arena with India’s regional rival status, which could further complicate Pakistan’s SCO influence. Moreover, Pakistan’s domestic economic constraints and political instability also constitute barriers to fully realizing the benefits for Pakistan of becoming an SCO member. Balancing SCO commitments with its established Western relationships, most crucially with the US, is a source of diplomatic complexity because Pakistan must balance the regional agenda of the SCO against Western interests in Asia. Based on this, Pakistan’s membership scope in SCO presents ample opportunities for economic growth, security cooperation, and regional influence. However, success in SCO membership will depend on Pakistan’s capability to properly deal with these external and internal challenges and its commitment to SCO’s long-term strategic objectives.

Conclusion

Joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization would be transformative for Pakistan as it becomes the centre of a regional alliance, and its members work to bring together the region’s security, economic growth, and political cooperation. As a member of the SCO, Pakistan hopes to have greater economic and strategic cooperation and a more critical role in setting the tone of the region’s stability. However, the road to such a partnership needs to be more straightforward: Pakistan’s strategic location and complicated internal political situation, together with external competitors and a tendency to balance between Great Powers, will all put pressure on Pakistan’s ability to handle such complexity of relations to the edge. Nonetheless, while the scope for Pakistan to bolster its resilience and bolster long-term alliances while actively contributing to a cooperative and prosperous Asian landscape rests in a pragmatic and collaborative approach that Pakistan has adopted within the SCO, it appears to be precisely what Pakistan is already doing. This reflects Pakistan’s approach towards a multi-dimensional foreign policy that keeps the aspirations for the region’s peace, security, and development in mind.

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