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Officials in the United States criticized the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for inviting the president of Iran - an SCO observer - to the group's sixth annual summit. Both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the presence of Iran, which they described as a leading state sponsor of terrorism and is known to be hostile to Washington, clashed with the SCO's anti-terrorism priorities. But Vitaly Vorobyov, who is also a Russian ambassador at large, played down U.S. media speculation after the summit that the SCO could evolve from a security and economic forum into a military alliance alternative to NATO. "This is not an anti-American organization," he said. As one of the six negotiators on Iran's controversial nuclear research program, the U.S. has been pushing for UN economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which says it is enriching uranium for civilian projects only. Addressing a roundtable in RIA Novosti on security problems in Central Asia, Vorobyov said that the U.S. administration had shown high interest in the event and made a significant contribution to it via electronic media. Vorobyov said the organization - which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - had become a global rather than a regional group. Sergei Markov, the director of the Institute of Political Studies, a think tank, said the SCO "is the only organization without the U.S. or any of its allies." "It gives the organization increased authority, including in security issues," he said. The SCO member states have been pushing for the U.S. to withdraw its military units from Uzbekistan where American forces have been deployed to conduct a U.S.-led anti-terrorist campaign in neighboring Afghanistan. Last year, the U.S. applied for observer status in the forum at the same time as Iran, India and Pakistan, but the request was turned down. Related Articles: ** Iran
President Upbeat on Shanghai Group Summit Iran President Upbeat on Shanghai Group Summit
Iran has observer status at the SCO, which unites Russia, China and four ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia as full members. "In the course of bilateral and tripartite meetings with the leaders of China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan, we discussed various problems of mutual interest, achieving good results," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at Tehran airport after his return from Shanghai. "The SCO is an important and influential international and regional organization. Its member countries have an aggregate population exceeding more than half the world's population," he said. Shanghai
Organization Unlikely to
BISHKEK (RIA Novosti) -- A Eurasian security bloc comprising five former Soviet republics and China is unlikely to expand soon, Kyrgyzstan's foreign minister said. "The expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) by admission of new members, including those that currently have observer status, is not on the agenda at present," Alikbek Dzhekshenkulov told a news conference. The diplomat said the issue had been widely discussed at a recent meeting of SCO foreign ministers, but the participants decided it was too early to consider the expansion of the bloc and agreed to focus on the strengthening of the organization instead. The SCO was set up a decade ago to deal with Islamic extremism and other security threats in Central Asia, but has since expanded its scope to include cooperation in disaster relief and trade. Dzhekshenkulov said Russia, China and Kazakhstan could play the role of an "economic locomotive" to boost the progress of less developed members of the organization. The SCO summit, which opens on June 15, will bring together the presidents of member nations Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China, as well as the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia that currently have observer status in the alliance. |
