A half-day talk programme on Russian-Chinese Relations
and the Development of Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation was jointly organized by the Institute of
Foreign Aff airs (IFA) and the Russian Centre of Science
and Culture at the Auditorium Hall of the Russian Centre
of Science and Culture at Kamalpokhari, Kathmandu, on
August 24, 2007.
The programme was held under the chairmanship of Prof.
Dr. Gopal Pokharel, Executive Director of IFA. Mr. Gyan
Chandra Acharya, Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign
Aff airs (MoFA), graced the function as the chief guest, while
Prof. Dr. Alexander Lukin, Director of the Centre for East
Asian and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Studies
under the Moscow State Institute of International
Relations, was the keynote speaker. The well-known
Russian scholar also worked at the Soviet Foreign Ministry,
Soviet Embassy in China and Oriental Studies of the Soviet
Academy of Science.
Addressing the programme, Foreign Secretary Mr.
Acharya lauded the Russian scholar for his brief but
analytical presentation about the excellent relationship
between Russia and China in the past. "The bilateral ties
between the two countries are being enhanced at present
as well," he added.
He expressed the view that the good relationship between
the two major powers (Russia and China) would have
positive impact on all the countries across the world.
"As we have entered into the new era of relationship at the
global level, all of us are looking forward to consolidating
the relationship between Russia and China and among all
the major powers," he added.
He said that the regional body was going ahead in a right
direction.
He further said that the organisation had developed and
explored new areas of cooperation, especially in the fi eld
of water resources, energy, infrastructure, and social,
political and economic spheres. "We are closely watching
the development and progress of the SCO, which is more
vibrant than the SARRC," he said.
"We are also keen to see its all dimensions—geostrategic,
economic, social as well as cooperation among the regional
organisations," he said.
Calling the Central Asia a close neighbour, he said it had
a lot of direct and indirect impacts on Nepal. "So, we have
much interest in the SCO," he said.
He said that Nepal was looking into the possibility of being
an observer of the regional body.
"It is a matter of pride for us to know that Afghanistan
was a special guest this year in the Bishkek Summit where
many of the economic and security issues were thoroughly
discussed," he said.
He said that the developing countries like Nepal basically
believed that cooperation and mutual understanding
among the countries in the region would create a synergetic
eff ect on the development of the region as a whole. "It will
promote goodwill and peace in the region," he said.
Talking about the promotion of trade and development of
infrastructure and energy, he said that Nepal would benefi t
a lot from the SCO in the days ahead.
Concluding his remarks, he expressed the belief that the
talk programme would be useful to all to understand more
about China and Russia in terms of state-to-state and
people-to-people relations.
Presenting his keynote address on the same topic of the
talk programme, Prof. Dr. Lukin said that the SCO was
striving for promoting bilateral relationship, and regional
and cultural cooperation among the member states.
Stressing the bilateral ties between the two neighbours,
Prof. Lukin said that Russia and China were the best friends
since the 1950s. He said that both the countries were
interested in abiding by international laws as members of
the UN Security Council.
He further said that Russia and China shared common
views on international problems like ongoing turmoil in
Yugoslavia, Iraq and North Korea.
Prof. Lukin said that trade turnover between the two
countries increased to US$ 4-5 billion in 1990. He
was hopeful that this year's turnover would reach
US$ 35 billion. "Russia has become one of the top
suppliers of natural resources to China. It basically
supplies oil, timber, including other natural resources",
he said.
He disclosed the fact that in the recent Summit held in
Bishkek, both the countries decided to establish the Trade
Chamber of Russia and China, which would deal with the
economic issues.
Prof. Lukin said that the regional cooperation between
Russia, China and other member states of the SCO had
been increasing. "Fighting terrorism, promoting economic
cooperation and developing infrastructure were the
three areas of regional cooperation of the SCO. Realising
the growing global threat of terrorism after 9-11 terrorist
attack, all the member states of the SCO have signed the
declaration on fi ghting terrorism jointly", he said.
Shedding light on the negative media coverage about the
SOC, he said that the organisation was blamed time and
again as an alternative to the NATO and an organisation of
anti-western alliances. He made it clear that the organisation
was not an agent of an anti-western alliances, but it was
an organisation formed for working together with UN, EU,
among others, to enhance regional cooperation for fi ghting
terrorism.
Emphasising the economic cooperation of the organisation,
he said that there were several plans of economic
cooperation adopted by the SCO. He added that the
organisation had already initiated the two projects of
building roads in Central Asia which would connect Russia
and China through Central Asia.
Recalling the recent remarks of the President of Russia, Mr.
Vladimir Putin in the Summit, he said that his president had
proposed an idea of creating Energy Club of SCO with the
aim of maintaining stable system of energy supply among
the member states.
Highlighting the cultural cooperation of the organisation,
Prof. Lukin said that most of the constituent member states
of the organisation had been facing cultural threats from
outsiders. "There is external infl uence on culture of these
countries and have been facing internal problems. Hence, to
preserve the age-old culture of the region, the organisation
is trying to do something special", he said.
He added that his president, in the Bishkek Summit held on
August 16, 2007, proposed for establishing Asia University,
Asia Sports and Medical Help aiming at helping the least
developed member states of the SCO.
Prof. Lukin also said that SCO could play an active role in
developing multipolar structure in the world without being
infl uenced from external forces.
Emphasising the popularity of the organisation, Prof.
Lukin said that the organisation being self-dependent
and sovereign, there had been growing interests of many
countries for its membership.
He disclosed the fact that the demonstration of Pakistan's
and South Korea's interests to be its full member and
Japan's and Nepal's wish to be its observer showed that
the organisation was growing and developing in its right
direction.
Off ering a brief introduction to the SCO, Prof. Pokharel,
Executive Director of IFA, said that the organisation was
established in June 2001 and had six member states.
Highlighting the major goals of the organisation, Prof. Pokharel said that it
aimed to strengthen mutual trust, friendship and good neighborly relations
among the member states.
"It is also focused on consolidating multi-disciplinary cooperation in the
maintaining and enhancing peace, security and stability in the region
and promoting new democratic, fair and rational political and economic
international order," he said.
He added that the organisatyion had been engaged in fi ghting against illicit
narcotics, arms traffi cking and other forms of criminal activity of a transnational
character and also illegal migration.
"Besides, the organisation also encourages effi cient regional cooperation in the
spheres of politics, trade, economy, defense, law enforcement, environment
protection, culture, science, technology, education, energy, transport, credit,
fi nance and other areas of common interest," he said.
According to him, the SCO aims to facilitate the comprehensive balanced
development in the region through joint actions on the basis of equal
partnership for the purpose steady increase in the living standard of the people
from the member states.
"It concomitantly has adopted a coordinating approach to integrating into
the global economy and promotes human rights and fundamental freedom
in accordance with the international obligations of the member states and the
national legislations," he observed.
He said that the organisation also contributed to maintaining and developing
relations with other states and international organisations, cooperating in
prevention of international confl icts and their peaceful settlement and jointly
searching for solutions to the problems that would arise in the 21st century.
Apart from these, the organisation has some institutional mechanisms. "It can
be speculated that the organisation may have come into existence in order
to prevent the ongoing various terrorist activities and turmoil in the world.
Obviously, if China, Russia and various other super powers of the global
importance work together, it would have a much desired eff ect on the countries
like Nepal," he said.
Recalling a good amount of aid that Nepal used to receive from the then
Soviet Union in terms of human resource development, he said that a number
of Nepali experts, particularly in the fi eld of technology, health science and
engineering sectors were produced.
He, however, said that such a bond of relationship had been missing somewhere
since the last few years. "Therefore, I would like to request the governments of
both the countries to revive the age-old relationship for mutual benefi t," he
said.
He emphasized the need for exploring more avenues of cooperation to
contribute to the global peace, stability and regional cooperation. "If the two
super powers of the world—China and Russia—sit together for discussion,
this will convey the message that they are not engaged in the proliferation of
military rivalry," he said.
He called for all to realize the fact that that Russia and China aimed at facilitating
regional cooperation, harmonisation of interests, exploitation of available
resources, etc. "So, the Russia-China cooperation should be seen in a positive
light," he said.
Floor Discussion
Following Prof. Alexander Lukin's elaborate presentation,
several participant scholars made their queries and
observations.
Prakash A Raj asked Prof. Lukin whether there were any
prospect of promoting regional cooperation among various
regional bodies like SAARC (South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation), ASEAN (Association for South East
Asian Nations) and the SCO.
Responding the query, Prof. Lukin said that the SCO
cooperated very actively with various international
organisations like United Nations (UN). He further informed
that Under Secretary-General of UN had gone to Bishkek to
attend the summit, and after that he had come to Nepal. He
added that the SCO cooperated with ASEAN, EU and some
other organisations as well. "It will also cooperate with
SAARC," he said.
M.R. Josse asked why Turkistan was not a member of the
SCO. He further inquired whether the formation of the
regional body was a competition with the organisations.
Answering his queries, the keynote speaker said that
Turkistan was a late leader and because of this position of
Turkistan, she was not a member.
To his second query, Prof. Lukin said that it was not a
competition. He suggested that the organisation should be
seen from the point of view of cooperation and friendship.
Prof. Dr. Bishnu Hari Nepal asked Prof. Lukin how the latter
had seen the future of balance of power system in terms of
multi-polarity concept vs unipolarity concept associating
with the security concern of the region.
Responding his query, Prof. Lukin said that balance of power
simply was a concept. He further said that multi-polarity
was an offi cial position and both Russia and China wanted
the world to be multi-polar. Highlighting the importance
of multi-polarism, he added that the SCO was formed for
promoting additional cooperation among the member
states and to work jointly on many issues arising in the
region.
He further stated that the SCO would not exclude close
cooperation with other countries including NATO and USA.
Prof. M.P. Lohani, asked the Russian scholar how the SCO
would emerge in future. He further asked in what way
the organisation would encompass other countries in the
world.
Answering his query, Prof. Lukin said that he could not
foresee the future. He, however, assured that the organisation
would promote cooperation in a number of the spheres like
energy, water, economy, culture and maintaining peace
with other countries of the world.
Shanti Mishra suggested that the organisation should work
in a more eff ective manner in establishing global peace. She
also wanted to know what sort of works the organisation
had done in the fi eld of culture.
Accepting her suggestions, Prof. Lukin said that Russia and
China had a problem of cultural understanding among
their people. He further said that the leaders of both the
countries had been striving for settling the cultural issues
between the two countries. He also said that realizing
the problem, the year 2006 was celebrated as the year of
Russia and China, and the year 2007 was being marked as
the year of China and Russia. He highlighted that in Russia-
China year, more than 200 events of cultural, economic and
political importance were held. "Such events have helped
in taking the bilateral ties of these countries to a newer
height," he said.
Earlier, presenting his welcome address, Mr. Sergey F.
Kiselev, Director of the Russian Centre for Science
and Culture, recalled a programme on the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation, which was organized on July 20,
2007.
He informed that the programme was attended by the
ambassadors of various embassies and consular of the
Russian Embassy.
Shedding light on the academic and professional life of
Prof. Dr. Lukin, Mr. Kiselev informed that the former was
a renowned scholar received his Ph.D. on International
Relations from the Moscow University.
According to Mr. Kiselev, the Russian professor has some
books, including Three Journeys Through China and The
Political Culture of Russian Democrats, to his credit.
At the end of the programme, extending her vote of thanks,
Ms. Anjan Shakya, Deputy Executive Director of IFA, said
that the bilateral relations between Russia and China had
remained cordial.
Highlighting the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as
an important regional forum, she said that the forum held
enormous potential for member states to enhance ties
between and among them.
In 1996, China founded an international alliance known as
the "Shanghai Five", which consisted of China, Russia and
three Central Asian countries—Tajakistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan. In 2001, Uzbekistan was invited to join the group
as a member and was offi cially named as the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation.
Highlighting the role of the forum, she said that the SCO
was focused on battling the terrorist threats emanating
from Afghanistan and ensuring regional stability.
She also lauded the SCO for its crucial role in furthering
economic and social cooperation among the member
countries.
She expressed the view that all the dignitaries present at
the talk programme had taken a lot of advantages from
the erudite presentation of the resource person Prof. Dr.
Alexander Lukin.
She added that the forum was in the interest of Nepal
as well.
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