One week after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on July 3-4, 2024; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit was held in Washington on July 10-11, 2024. The decisions taken and the messages given at these summits have shown us that the world is moving towards a bipolar or multipolar structure.
In the Astana Declaration, published at the end of the SCO Summit, it was emphasized that the United Nations did not fully fulfill its central coordination role and that the SCO is determined to build a more representative, fair, and democratic multipolar world system. [1] On the other hand, at the NATO Summit, many member states expressed their determination in terms of supporting Ukraine and criticized China’s support for Russia for “causing the war to prolong”. [2] Rejecting these allegations, China described them as “prejudicial, libelous, and provocative” and emphasized that NATO is a “remnant of the Cold War” that creates “instability” in the world and recently “wants to bring chaos” especially to Asia. [3]
These statements and mutual criticisms clearly demonstrate that NATO and the SCO have different world visions. Firstly, the United Nations system, which the SCO criticized, was mostly effective in maintaining the world peace during the Cold War period. Similarly, NATO, as a product of this period, had to develop a different strategic concept after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The continued expansion of NATO during the transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world after 1990 began to threaten the national security borders of the Russian Federation, the successor of the Soviet Union, in the early 2000s. In response to NATO’s moves, which included the Baltics to its enlargement in 2004, Russia began to adopt a more proactive and hard power-based strategy and entered a mutual power race with the West.
Unlike the founding purpose, authority and objectives of NATO, the SCO was established under the leadership of China at the beginning of the 21st century to address border security issues primarily in Central Asia and to combat terrorism. The most important difference of SCO and NATO is that the SCO is not a collective defense alliance; it does not have a relevant article in its founding establishment charter, and it aims rather to discuss and resolve regional security problems. In addition, the enlargement of SCO to include Pakistan and India in 2017, and the subsequent acceptance of Iran as a member in 2021, marked the beginning of the platform’s progress towards a more global and multilateral structure. The admission of Belarus as a member in 2024 was the latest sign of the SCO’s expanding world vision.
At the SCO summits to date, emphasis has been placed on global unity, warm neighborly relations, trust, and partnership principles. In this context, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his speech at the organization’s most recent Astana Summit, pointed out that the international landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation and emphasized that the SCO must protect the basis of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security no matter how the international landscape changes. [4] Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “a multipolar world has come into being” with the SCO summit and stated that the SCO, along with the BRICS, are “fundamental pillars” of this new world order. [5]
According to claims frequently expressed by the experts, the aim of Russia and China is to create a balance against NATO in the future through platforms that support multipolarity such as the SCO and BRICS. However, the diversity of members in these platforms makes it difficult to establish a common foreign policy, defense, and economic agenda. For instance, it is very difficult for Iran, Pakistan, and India to develop a common foreign policy and defense-security agenda within the SCO. Again, since the historical security problems concerning geographies of the SCO member states will often not be related to the interests of other member states, problems may arise in the decision-making processes. For example, it might be difficult for Belarus and India to agree on a common policy regarding security issues. A similar situation occurs within NATO when it comes to Turkey’s security problems.
Regardless of the diversity of their members, both NATO and the SCO have been drawn into political competition in recent years. On the one hand, the USA and the UK are trying to determine a new direction for NATO; on the other hand, Russia and China are trying to define the roles of the SCO and BRICS in the new world order. While NATO continues its polarization policy and zero-sum game rules from the Cold War period, striving to spread this approach towards Asia, platforms such as the SCO and BRICS are becoming alternative centers of attraction for the mostly developing Global South countries and other so-called “third world countries” that resist Western hegemony by advocating the vision of a multipolar world.
In the new multipolar world order, which is strongly supported by Russia and China, it will naturally take the time for harmony and stability to be achieved and established among member states. During this process, it is very important that organizations such as the SCO and BRICS do not engage in a polarization race with the West. It seems that Russia is in favor of further polarization with the West as it continues the war in Ukraine. China, on the other hand, sees platforms such as BRICS and the SCO in a pioneering and critical position in global development, the establishment of peace and security, and ultimately in the construction of a multipolar world.
[1] “Belarus Joins SCO as 10th Member, Highlighting Block’s Growing Appeal”, Xinhua, https://english.news.cn/20240705/83b29781afb04c8e8b470dbd519efadf/c.html, (Date of Accesion: 12.07.2024).
[2] “NATO: China has become ‘decisive enabler’ of war in Ukraine”, Euronews, https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/11/nato-china-has-become-decisive-enabler-of-war-in-ukraine, (Date of Accesion: 12.07.2024).
[3] “China rejects Nato accusations of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine”, FT, https://www.ft.com/content/66b423ce-7fa2-4d37-acc2-9ed5ce19b628, (Date of Accesion: 12.07.2024).
[4] “Full text of Xi Jinping’s speech at ‘Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus’ Meeting in Astana”, The State Council-PRC, https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202407/04/content_WS6686c48ac6d0868f4e8e8e25.html, (Date of Accesion: 12.07.2024).
[5] “NATO summit matched by rise of rival SCO”, Asia Times, https://asiatimes.com/2024/07/nato-summit-matched-by-rise-of-rival-sco/, (Date of Accesion: 12.07.2024).
