On 26 November at 11:00 a.m. (GMT+3) the Valdai Club hosted a webinar in partnership with the Indian Observer Research Foundation (ORF), titled “The future of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has reopened the debate over the ineffectiveness of multilateral institutions, fuelled not only by the current crisis, but also by the prospect of US-China confrontation escalating, which could narrow the prospects for multilateralism.
At the time of the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the main goal of the association was to combat such challenges as separatism, extremism and terrorism. At the SCO summit, chaired by Russia in a videoconference format on November 10 this year, these issues were also raised. However, long before the pandemic, doubts arose about the effectiveness of the SCO and its ability to resolve specific issues in Eurasia. The uneasy relationship between India and Pakistan, which joined the organisation in 2017, as well as growing tensions between India and China, have only intensified this scepticism. In addition, the development of the SCO has been influenced by the different agendas of Russia and China: Moscow insists on focusing on security issues, while Beijing has focused more on economic issues.
Will the SCO be able to focus its attention on the original intentions that served as the basis for establishing the organisation? How do India and Russia perceive the rise of China; is there a risk of its transformation into a regional hegemon? Which multilateral organisations may become stronger in a changing world order? Will the SCO be one such group? These and many other questions were addressed during the webinar.
Speakers:
- Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club
- Vasily Kashin, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics
- Alexey Kupriyanov, Senior Researcher of the Sector of International Organisations and Global Political Regulation of the Department of International Political Problems, IMEMO RAS
- Ambassador Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Permanent Representative of India to the UN (2013–2015)
- Sriparna Pathak, Deputy Dean at the Jindal School of International Affairs of O.P. Jindal Global University, India
Moderator:
Working languages: Russian, English.