A new SCO 'milestone' in the making

The upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit aims to deepen regional cooperation in order to overcome the political, economic and security challenges created by the fast changing regional situation. To achieve the goal, the SCO member countries will work on a five-year outline for the implementation of the Treaty of Long-Term Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation and formulate a three-year program of cooperation to fight the three evil forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Cooperation in economic, security and cultural fields has been the focus of the SCO. But given the fast changing regional and global situations, the June 9-10 SCO Summit in Qingdao, Shandong province, will attach greater importance to political cooperation, the basis of all forms of cooperation.

To lay a solid foundation for political cooperation, the SCO member states should prepare mutually acceptable and legally binding documents, including intergovernmental agreements. For that, of course, they first have to deepen mutual trust, by developing strategic coordination and deepening legislative and judicial cooperation.