Catching the Shanghai Spirit

Strategic Vision vol. 11, no. 54 (October, 2022) Catching the Shanghai Spirit

Turkey, other SCO members tilt on the axis of a transforming global system

Diren Doğan

President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, left, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

photo: Kremlin.ru

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), was founded under the name The Shanghai Five to address the security and economic challenges faced by its founding members, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Security problems such as border insecurity emerged in the Eurasian region after the collapse of the USSR and with the emergence of a new strategic environment in the post-Cold War period. This laid the foundations for the 1996 founding of the SCO.

With the evolution of global geopolitics to a unipolar structure, as well as the rise of Islamic Terrorism following the 9/11 attacks, the organization expanded in both membership and scope, adding to its agenda such themes as multilateralism, terrorism, separatism, and the development of cooperation between member countries. Today, the SCO has nine member states, three observer members, and six dialogue partners, and constitutes one of the most important dialogue mechanisms behind the “Rise of Asia” thesis. Organizations under the SCO umbrella are a potential platform for countries to conduct multilateral diplomacy. In this context, for example, the SCO Heads of State Council Summit held in September 2022 provided the necessary environment for actors with various disagreements to come together. Likewise, founding-member Russia, which is subjected to sanctions due to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, was able to attend the summit and hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines with many regional actors, particularly the PRC and Turkey, the latter being a NATO member country.

A transforming global system

In the transformation of the global system, Asia’s remarkable position has undoubtedly increased the strategies developed for the Asian geography and the countries in the region. In this context, the fact that countries exhibit a strong cooperation mechanism with each other and keep channels of dialogue open provides an important opportunity for them to emerge from the challenges of a transforming global system with the least amount of damage. The SCO covers more than 40 percent of the world’s population and more than 30 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, and so this begs the question of whether the SCO can serve as an alternative to the Western-dominated world order.

The leadership regimes of China and Russia both frequently refer to the need for a new world order, and announced in a February 4, 2022, joint declaration that their partnership “has no limits.” Moreover, today’s SCO includes large Asian countries like India and Pakistan, as well as large but politically isolated countries like Iran. However, defining the SCO as an alternative to the West is contrary to the organization’s founding purpose, and to the strategies of the countries in the organization.

The main mission of the SCO is to serve as a political, economic, and military organization for the Eurasian region, aimed at maintaining regional peace and security, as well as to guard against attempts by external forces to instigate color revolutions, such as Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution and Egypt’s 2011 Lotus Revolution. The animating ethic of the SCO is the “Shanghai Spirit,” which is itself influenced by the PRC state government motivations, along the lines of the so-called Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as proclaimed by Chinese leader Zhou Enlai in the early 1950s, which focused on mutual non-aggression, co-operation, and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. Like this antecedent, the Shanghai Spirit likewise focuses on such buzzwords as mutual trust, equality, consultation, mutual benefit, and diversity—essentially a rededication the Westphalian norms of national sovereignty.

A photograph of visiting leaders taken at the 2022 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State Council Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

photo: SCO

Thus, in foreign policy, SCO members undertake a commitment to not interfere in the internal affairs of other states, to not target third countries, and to follow the principle of openness. In this context, while the political systems of many member states differ from each other, care is taken to establish the relationship between the countries on a level playing field.

An important moment

The leadership photo taken at the SCO Heads of State Council Summit in Samarkand memorializes an important moment in terms of visualizing the organization. The photo illustrates how the confab brought together the leaders of many countries, such as India, China, and Pakistan, which have territorial disputes with one another.

It is also significant because India is not satisfied with the role attributed to it by the United States in the great power competition, and because it includes the Republic of Turkey, the only NATO member country to participate in the SCO summit. In addition, the photo includes the leaders of four of the nine countries in the world with nuclear weapons, two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and the Independent Turkic Republics, which have a significant portion of the world’s energy on their lands. In this context, while the SCO is a formation whose weight cannot be ignored, the future of the organization is gaining importance day by day in parallel with the importance attributed to the Asian continent.

While evaluating the SCO’s importance for Turkey, it is important to realize that Turkey is in a unique geopolitical position with respect to multilateral organizations, as the westernmost Asian and the easternmost European country. Turkey’s strategic, bridging role between two important continents includes not only physical connections such as energy and transportation, but also a diplomatic role. Turkey’s strategy prioritizes cooperation and effective multilateralism in its relations with the different power axes, as well as in the multilateral platforms in which it takes part. Parallel to this strategy, Ankara benefits from similar mechanisms in its relationships on the Asian continent, though it does not see these as substitutes for its relations with the West and the dialogue mechanisms it shares with Western nations.

Although the SCO is not an alternative to NATO or the European Union, the importance of the SCO for Turkey is hidden in the rich dialogue mechanism it has created and the importance it attributes to Ankara’s Asia Anew Initiative. The SCO offers Turkey an environment for carrying out dialogue that directly serves the Turkish foreign policy principle of strong diplomacy. While the bilateral and multilateral diplomatic channels that the SCO opens up include many strategically important actors such as India, Russia, Azerbaijan, and especially the PRC— which is an important actor in Asia given its role in production and supply chains—it also provides an environment for the advancement of relations between countries, as evidenced by the comprehensive network of agreements signed with Kazakhstan a week after the summit.

Asia Anew

On the other hand, the Asia Anew Initiative announced by Turkey at the 11th Ambassadors Conference held in 2019 aims to further strengthen Ankara’s ties with the entire Asian continent, including the SCO member states. In line with this aim, the relations with the SCO and a potential step towards membership do not aim for a competition of East versus West, but rather a multilateralism in terms of economic, political, and socio-cultural aspects of the axis.

Asian countries are playing their part in turning the wheels of the world system, revealing the fact that the axes of power are shifting towards this region, along with many factors such as supply chains, logistics connections, energy security, and technology. Parallel to this development, which is defined as the rise of Asia, attention has also turned to the multilateral formations that continue to exist in the region. In recent years, when the concept of a New World Order is discussed as an alternative to the Western liberal international order, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization—which includes the PRC and Russia—is considered to be one of the founders of this new order. Combined with other factors—the organization’s growth, its member states keeping the channels of dialogue open despite disagreements, Iran’s involvement in the organization, and the military and economic rise of Asia—this situation has led to the SCO being perceived as a threat by nonregional actors.

“As a collective defense organization, the SCO is seen as an alternative to NATO, though it has a structure that is far different.”

Turkey has enjoyed close relations with the West since the days of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey carries out its strategies both in parallel with the principle of multilateral foreign policy and on the basis of its geopolitical position, however. Therefore, Turkey’s cooperation with non-Western multilateral organizations as a link between the two continents is a natural outcome of 21st century globalization. Relations with Asia are a natural extension of the strong diplomatic network that Ankara aims to establish, considering that Turkey is also an Asian country. As a collective defense organization, the SCO is seen as an alternative to NATO, though it has a structure that is far different. In light of all this, it is worth keeping an eye on the SCO and the strategies it carries out in coming years.

Diren Doğan is a former Taiwan MOFA fellow at the Taiwan Center for Security Studies. She can be followed on Twitter at @direndogand