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18 Helsinki Monitor 246 (2007)
The Shanghai Cooperation and the OSCE: Two of a Kind

handle is hein.journals/helsnk18 and id is 256 raw text is: The Shanghai Cooperation and the OSCE: Two of a kind? Marcel de Haas' Introduction The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a regional international organisation comprising states in Europe, the Near East, Central Asia and South East Asia. The sco regulates of cooperation in political, military, economic, energy and cultural fields. sco member states have a population of nearly 1.5 billion people, which is about a quarter of the total world population. Including the four observers, the SCO even encompasses nearly half of the world's population. Furthermore, in addition to the member states Russia and China, the observers India and Pakistan bring together four nuclear powers, whereas the observer Iran might well be on the road to reaching that status. The total area occupied by sco member states is 3/5 of the territory of Eurasia.2 An important ingredient of economic cooperation is energy, in which Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Iran are big exporters - and China and India are significant importers. The size of the armed forces of China and Russia belong to the top three in the world.3 Russia and even more so China are the leading actors of the sco. Comprising a considerable territory in and around Central Asia, a large part of the world's population, energy sources, nuclear arms and significant armed forces, the sco in theory has a formidable economic, political and military potential. Why would the sco be of any interest to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)? For example, because of shared activities and objectives, such as arms control. But also because of the geographical area they largely have in common. Furthermore, and perhaps the most important reason, because both organisations are active players in international security and are thus likely to have a similar interest in advancing the international rule of law I Lieutenant-Colonel Dr M. de Haas has a PhD in Russian security studies and is a Senior Research Fellow in the military doctrine, strategy and security policy of the Netherlands, NATO, the EU, Russia and the cis, at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael' in The Hague. 2 Brief introduction to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, http://www.sectsco.org/html/00026.html; The sco members and observers account for some 2.7 billion people out of 6.4 billion of the world's population (Source: 2005 World Population Data Sheet, www.prb.org). 3 Nothing in the present framework Convention shall be interpreted as implying any right to engage in any activity or perform any act contrary to the fundamental principles of international law and in particular of the sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of States. Council of Europe - ETS no. 57 - Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, Article 21

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