PAKISTAN-RUSSIA RELATIONS: WAY TO SCO MEMBERSHIP – OPED

By Nasurullah Brohi

In the wake of the visit of Russia’s Defense Minister General Sergey Shoigut to Pakistan — resulting in unprecedented defense cooperation agreements — relations between the two countries is improving.

Pakistan’s relationship with the Russian Federation has suffered greatly in the past, as a result of Pakistan’s alignment to Western interests that demanded the country to become an ally. Now, however, the future brings immense opportunities for both countries to collectively exploit the wherewithal of their valuable and efficient collaboration for larger mutual developments. During the Soviet era, Pakistan greatly benefited from the mega-cooperation projects such as the Pakistan Steel Mills in 1970. Recently, the Russian Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Factory (MMK) has expressed interest in increasing production and the up-grading of the Pakistan Steel Mills. Russia also offers Pakistan with highly needed solutions to its energy crisis by investments through Russian energy giant Gazprom. Moreover, Russia also plans to satisfy region’s energy needs through connecting the Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan by a power strip.

In addition, Pakistan is eagerly pursuing its full membership in the the great economic and energy potential of Russia-China led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan and its pledge as an eventual energy and trade corridor for the region, its close strategic and economic associations with China and developing relations with Russia are among the greatest aspects favoring Pakistan’s chances of becoming a permanent member of the SCO.

The current political scenario in the South and Central Asia, along with other states in the Eurasian region, finds many of these countries enthusiastically seeking opportunities of binding themselves in collective beneficial cooperation organizations such as the SCO. The SCO holds significant importance in the development and cooperation currently taking place in the Asian and Central Eurasian region. The cooperation mainly covers the areas of security, economic, energy, bilateral and multilateral ties between the SCO member states. In the contemporary regional and international political scenario, China and Russia both have leading, ambitious roles aimed at becoming dominant global political players and their collective effort for the reason makes the SCA a golden opportunity for the small states of the region who can more easily pursue their national policy objectives collectively.

The SCO, formerly known as Shanghai Five that was originally created in 1996 with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions by the heads of states of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and was also a turning point in Sino-Russian relations and a new global economic and political order to counter the security and other challenges to region and specially to the member states.

SCO as a regional body is also likely to become a counter balance to NATO. The SCO incorporates cooperation on economic, cultural, security, military, intelligence sharing, and counterterrorism. Pakistan is one of the most important countries falling in the SCO region – having immense geo-political and politico-economic capabilities. Pakistan has an excellent relationship with China, whereas, looking at the Pakistan-Russia relations, both countries have a variety of common interests that could go further in the strengthening of trust and be of mutual benefit. Pakistan stands by the auxiliary enhancement of cooperation with other countries of the region, through the SCO forum to meet its economic and energy challenges and counter the threats of terrorism, radicalization and drug trafficking. Both sides stress the need for the persistence of impetus grown in the wake of the Moscow conference and share similar views over the majority of international and cross­-regional issues.

The strong ties between Pakistan and Russia are in the best interests of regional stability and prosperity. As energy politics is gaining momentum across the world, the SCO’s initiative mainly taken by Russia for providing support to energy projects in different countries, is a benign opportunity for Pakistan. At present, gas politics is also gaining across the world and the establishment of the energy club is being actively backed by Russia and China under the SCO umbrella. Russia is keenly willing to support Pakistan in implementing energy projects, but due to the US influencing attitude, the projects have so far gained a cold response. The question now is, whether  membership in SCO will also assist in the resolution of explosive flashpoints in Asia such as Afghanistan and Kashmir, which are key national and foreign policy objectives for Pakistan.