Sasquatch
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The admission of Afghanistan on Thursday as an observer to the Central Asia-focused Shanghai Cooperation Organization reflects the expanding regional roles of China and Russia.
China has hosted the SCO since 2001 with an early focus on terrorism and other security issues between China, Russia and its Central Asian neighbours Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In the following 12 years, the economic focus of the group has grown and it has embraced a full range of cooperation between the six members.
Three more of the world's most populous and strategically important nations - India, Pakistan and Iran - have joined the group as observers.
Afghanistan's new role in the group symbolizes the SCO's growing importance at a time when the United States is preparing to withdraw all troops from the war-torn nation by 2014.
China and Russia insist that the SCO is a non-military alliance that does not seek to displace Western influence in Afghanistan or other countries in the region.
A commentary by China's official Xinhua news agency said the SCO had stuck to its "principle of non-alignment and functions as an effective stabilizer for regional security and peace."
Despite holding larger and more frequent military drills, the commentary said such exercises were solely aimed at building capacity against the threat of terrorist attacks in the region.
"No sober mind could term (the six nations) military allies since their joint actions, instead of aiming at a third country, focus only on combating the 'three evil forces' - terrorism, separatism, and extremism - and other unconventional security menaces," the commentary said.
It said the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in 2014 could increase the threat of terrorism, making the SCO's "emphasis on anti-terror readiness even more relevant."
A growing role for China and Russia in Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries appears inevitable, especially after the NATO withdrawal, said Li Ziguo, an expert on Central Asia at the China Institute of International Studies, a government think-tank.
"Because if a nation and an organization have been dealing with a region for 10 years and suddenly they retreat, and their tasks were not accomplished, then other regional organisations have to play more important roles," Li told dpa.
But Li said the expansion of the SCO and its military cooperation were "completely not about the United States."
"It was (founded) to solve our problems about boundaries, problems about mutual trust in military and political affairs," he said. "Then the aims expanded to regional development and maintaining regional stability."
NATO recently invited the SCO to observe its meetings and the two organizations have enjoyed some cooperation on Afghanistan, said Wang Lijiu, an expert on Russia at another Chinese government think-tank.
"How to protect the security of Afghanistan after NATO withdraws ... how to reconstruct Afghanistan, and how to solve the drug problem in Afghanistan are common issues that concern both NATO and the SCO," Wang said.
China cemented its dominant role in the SCO on Thursday as President Hu Jintao announced a Chinese fund of 10 billion dollars to support economic cooperation and development among the six members.
Hu said the SCO should become a "reliable guarantor of regional security," but he also urged the six nations to increase competitiveness and build the region into an economic "driving force."
Hu met Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of this week's two-day SCO leaders' summit, with the two nations signing more than a dozen bilateral agreements covering trade, investment, nuclear power, banking and other sectors.
Putin eulogized the "strategic partnership" between Beijing and Moscow, and said the two nations were on track to meet their target of increasing bilateral trade to 200 billion dollars by 2020, up from 83.5 billion dollars last year.
Much of that trade is based on exports of Russian oil and gas to China via Central Asia.
In a sign that Afghanistan could become part of that SCO-led Central Asian energy network, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who attended the SCO summit, held talks with Chinese officials on Wednesday on a planned gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China via Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
China has hosted the SCO since 2001 with an early focus on terrorism and other security issues between China, Russia and its Central Asian neighbours Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In the following 12 years, the economic focus of the group has grown and it has embraced a full range of cooperation between the six members.
Three more of the world's most populous and strategically important nations - India, Pakistan and Iran - have joined the group as observers.
Afghanistan's new role in the group symbolizes the SCO's growing importance at a time when the United States is preparing to withdraw all troops from the war-torn nation by 2014.
China and Russia insist that the SCO is a non-military alliance that does not seek to displace Western influence in Afghanistan or other countries in the region.
A commentary by China's official Xinhua news agency said the SCO had stuck to its "principle of non-alignment and functions as an effective stabilizer for regional security and peace."
Despite holding larger and more frequent military drills, the commentary said such exercises were solely aimed at building capacity against the threat of terrorist attacks in the region.
"No sober mind could term (the six nations) military allies since their joint actions, instead of aiming at a third country, focus only on combating the 'three evil forces' - terrorism, separatism, and extremism - and other unconventional security menaces," the commentary said.
It said the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in 2014 could increase the threat of terrorism, making the SCO's "emphasis on anti-terror readiness even more relevant."
A growing role for China and Russia in Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries appears inevitable, especially after the NATO withdrawal, said Li Ziguo, an expert on Central Asia at the China Institute of International Studies, a government think-tank.
"Because if a nation and an organization have been dealing with a region for 10 years and suddenly they retreat, and their tasks were not accomplished, then other regional organisations have to play more important roles," Li told dpa.
But Li said the expansion of the SCO and its military cooperation were "completely not about the United States."
"It was (founded) to solve our problems about boundaries, problems about mutual trust in military and political affairs," he said. "Then the aims expanded to regional development and maintaining regional stability."
NATO recently invited the SCO to observe its meetings and the two organizations have enjoyed some cooperation on Afghanistan, said Wang Lijiu, an expert on Russia at another Chinese government think-tank.
"How to protect the security of Afghanistan after NATO withdraws ... how to reconstruct Afghanistan, and how to solve the drug problem in Afghanistan are common issues that concern both NATO and the SCO," Wang said.
China cemented its dominant role in the SCO on Thursday as President Hu Jintao announced a Chinese fund of 10 billion dollars to support economic cooperation and development among the six members.
Hu said the SCO should become a "reliable guarantor of regional security," but he also urged the six nations to increase competitiveness and build the region into an economic "driving force."
Hu met Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of this week's two-day SCO leaders' summit, with the two nations signing more than a dozen bilateral agreements covering trade, investment, nuclear power, banking and other sectors.
Putin eulogized the "strategic partnership" between Beijing and Moscow, and said the two nations were on track to meet their target of increasing bilateral trade to 200 billion dollars by 2020, up from 83.5 billion dollars last year.
Much of that trade is based on exports of Russian oil and gas to China via Central Asia.
In a sign that Afghanistan could become part of that SCO-led Central Asian energy network, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who attended the SCO summit, held talks with Chinese officials on Wednesday on a planned gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China via Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
