Opinion: major international initiatives and projects being implemented within SCO

Major international initiatives and projects are being implemented within the framework of the SCO – as noted by political scientist Yuri Shevtsov when sharing his views about how important they are for the work of the association in the Eurasian space and worldwide

“Pakistan, India, China, the countries of Central Asia managed to prevent religious extremism in the region and made sure that the civil war in Afghanistan did not spread to a much larger area. Now the SCO is in the third phase of development, when Western pressure on a range of member countries, primarily on Russia, China and Iran, forced them to seek a common language at a deeper level. Over the past two or three years, grandiose projects have appeared in the SCO. Thus, an agreement was signed between China and Iran. China has pledged to buy large volumes of oil from Iran for twenty-five years, taking into account that Iran is subject to Western sanctions to reduce the flow of money from the export of Iranian oil. This solves the problem of Iran almost completely, leveling the negative effect of US sanctions. The second item in the deal is an opportunity for China to invest $200-250bn in Iranian economic infrastructure, energy and industrial projects. Of course, interest arose in creating a direct overland transport link between China and Iran through Central Asia or Pakistan. This means that a new configuration has been created in the economy, in the sphere of security – in the Persian Gulf region, in Central Asia and Pakistan,” explained the expert.

“Shortly after the signing of the Sino-Iranian agreement, Russia entered into similar agreements with Iran. It was decided to increase mutual trade turnover, Russian investments in Iran in the amount of up to $100bn, and it is also planned to develop the North-South transport corridor. This is where a direct interest for Belarus appears. The North-South corridor is St. Petersburg-the Caspian Sea-Iran. We are already discussing the creation of a Belarusian port in Astrakhan for trade along the Caspian Sea and the Volga River. For Belarus, this means the following: thanks to the Russian-Iranian agreements, and now Belarusian-Iranian, we get the opportunity to compensate for the losses for the country from the sanctions strike of the West. There are similar Russian-Chinese ideas: to build up contacts across all areas. In a word, the longer the pressure of the West on these states increases, the faster co-operation in the SCO will develop,” summed up Yuri Shevtsov.