Valdai Club

The SCO will try to implement some kind of reset. The meeting is expected to become a new stage for further development of the organization.

On April 28-29, 2016, Dushanbe will hold the Expert Forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will be attended by delegations of the scientific and expert communities from SCO member-states and states-observers. Yerlan Karin, Director of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan told the valdaiclub.com, that this forum can become a new stage in further development of the organization.

"The SCO will try to implement some kind of reset. The meeting is expected to become a new stage for further development of the organization ", - Yerlan Karin said.

According to him, the final decisions could not be taken, but there is an understanding that the SCO is likely to be expanded. "At least, consultations and dialogues within the organization each time will involve some new members", - the expert believes.

Karin said that possible inclusion of Iran into these consultations is now widely discussed. "What specific status Iran would acquire in this organization, is yet to be the subject of debate and discussion", - the expert said.

By the way, Russia and China support the full-scale Iran's involvement to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization activities. Earlier the UN sanctions were main obstacle to Iran's accession to SCO.

According to Yerlan Karin, the forthcoming forum will discuss the expansion of topics of the SCO concern. "The SCO should not focus only on the security issues," - said the expert, adding that economic issues are no less important for a world order construction.

"Each of the SCO summits becomes a platform, a tribune for the most important political statements, where a substantive position on hot issues is revealed. And for sure it will be this time", - Erlan Karin said.

On June 23-24, 2016, the Uzbek capital Tashkent will host the SCO summit, which will discuss initiatives to combat drug trafficking, transnational organized crime, ISIS-Daesh (radical organization, forbidden in the Russian Federation) and other issues. It is expected, that during this meeting a memorandum will be signed on the India and Pakistan obligations to get the status of the SCO member-states.