Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The world's map of global governance and security architecture is shifting, and BRICS is heeding the call for change, says academic Alessandro Arduino. Countries like Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, who have just been invited to join BRICS, seek to diversify their strategic options. This is in line with China's outreach to the global south and Russia’s need to combat international isolation, but the other BRICS members may have some hesitation.

After US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen followed suit, while US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry is also expected to visit Beijing in the coming weeks. Despite the flurry of activity, says US academic Zhu Zhiqun, intractable issues remain in US-China relations.

India has hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) virtual summit for the first time, bringing together Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other heads of state in the grouping. This shows India’s growing influence and deft political navigation between China and the US, but the verdict is still out on whether it can play a larger role in easing global conflicts.

Mere dissatisfaction with the West is an insufficient adhesive to solidify membership within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which just welcomed Iran as a full member. While India tried to assert a greater role during the virtual SCO summit it hosted, conflicts of interest among members, and now between Iran and dialogue partners like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will be challenging to manage.

Pundits hoping for a sign of detente between India and Pakistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa recently would have been disappointed. It is in Pakistan’s interest to keep relations with India testy leading up to its elections, and China’s support may just give it the ammunition it needs.

Central Asia is a linchpin between Eurasia and Southeast Asia and a strategic node in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese President Xi Jinping notably visited Central Asia in his first foreign visit in over two years. But while China’s economic engagement is welcome in the region, it is currently not a confident security provider. Could things change in the near future?

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan highlights his bid to advance his vision of the China dream. This, however, will require changes in the global balance of power that countries around the world, including Southeast Asian countries, will find hard to manage. How will China proceed from here, and will it be able to win allies along the way?

Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan analyses the outcomes of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Uzbekistan and the implications of China’s perceived stronger courting of the Central Asia region.

China seems to be pulling back while Russia wants to take a step forward, as seen from the Xi-Putin parlay at their meeting in Uzbekistan. But the delicate dance is not only at the surface level of the Ukraine war, but China’s deeper strategic goals in Central Asia, where Russia considers itself a dominant power.