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The role of shanghai cooperation organization in Afghanistan

This article highlights the role and place of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the politico-legal regulation of the Afghan issue. This question is updated due to the impending withdrawal of NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan. In this connection, will increase the value and role of the SCO and the CSTO in maintaining peace and stability in the entire Central Asian region 

Introduction

Now Afghanistan is passing its much important and vital time, three transitions are in progress, they are in political, economic and security domains. There is upcoming Presidential Election in 2014, withdrawal of NATO, and concerns about its economy, on the other hand there is no progress in peace talk. These factors all increasing concerns about the future of Afghanistan.

The role of Shanghai Cooperation Organization is increasingly being emphasized in this regard; recently the leaders of member states of this organization expressed their interests to take part in cooperation in Afghanistan after withdrawal of NATO in 2014.

In this brief writing, strived to find the interconnections, in which the interests of both SCO and Afghanistan are sought and analyzing the role of SCO as an international law Entity to tackle the most concerned challenges like drug trafficking, terrorism and highlighting its role in economic and security domains. The focus will be from a legal perspective.

Background to the SCO

Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental organization which is founded in 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Uzbekistan.

The main goals of organization are strengthening the mutual confidence and good-neighborly relations among member states and promoting cooperation in security, economic and cultural issues.

The organization emphasizes on three core challenges in security cooperation which is Terrorism, Extremism and Separatism. In recent years its activities increasingly have centered in economic and cultural issues, nevertheless there are increasing concerns about threats of terrorism, extremism in region [1].

Both from economic and security perspectives and geopolitically this organization is supposed to be involved in situation of Afghanistan and vice versa Afghanistan needs to have the accompany of this organization.

So far, there is remarkable progress in relationship between Afghanistan and Shanghai Cooperation Organization; On 6 June 2012 at the SCO summit in Beijing, China, Afghanistan was officially granted the Observer Status by members of the organization, also many member states of this organization have expressed their tendency to take part in cooperation of Afghanistan.

Security

From the security point of view, it is clear that insecurity, threats of terrorism affect the territory of this organization, geopolitically Afghanistan lies along tow member states; Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, it has a long borders with these countries and a bit with China. In recent years there have been many evidence of Terrorist and Extremists activities in central Asia, specifically in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan even in Kazakhstan.

For the first time in January 2002, SCO foreign ministers meeting in Beijing issued a statement that ―welcomed‖ the Taliban’s downfall and called on regional organizations to joint in eliminating the terrorist networks based in Afghanistan. The SCO pledged to carry out constructive dialogue and cooperation with temporary Afghan government and future power structure in Afghanistan.

The CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) proposed a joint action with SCO to struggle against Taliban to regain power but China, who is usually disinclined to have closer ties with CSTO, while being aware of threat in region, might consider cooperation between SCO and NATO a better way to deal with these problems.

At NATO Bucharest summit in April 2008 the Russia and tow Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan agreed to grant transit rights to NATO to transfer non-military goods via their territory to Afghanistan [2].

China leading member of this organization is very concern of emerging extremist in its southern state (Xinjiang), Chines officials remain alarmed by the Taliban’s ties with extremist groups advocating independence Xinjiang, despite the Chines government has continued eschew participating in multilateral security collaboration regarding Afghanistan, except indirectly within the United Nation, has instead focused on engaging in bilateral initiatives with the Afghan government – such as providing some military and police training at chines academies and securing opportunities for Chines companies to exploit Afghanistan natural resources [3].

Withdrawal of NATO and international forces from Afghanistan highlights the role of SCO in this country than ever it has. After 2014 in case of withdrawing the NATO, there might be possibility of further risks of terrorism which affect the region.

Recently from many reactions of this organization, revealed that it is seeking to play bigger role in Afghanistan after withdrawal of NATO in 2014, Pakistan and India have separately showed their tendency with China and Russia to be involved in Afghanistan after withdrawal of NATO in 2014.

But What is debatable in this discussion is the enthusiasm of China, Russia specially Pakistan to take part in cooperation of Afghanistan only after withdrawal of NATO, whereas situation after withdrawal of international force is unpredictable, as the Afghan military authorities many times emphasized on preparation of Afghan National force to control the situation after 2014, on the other hand small number of US troops will remain to provide education and technical, professional support to Afghan National Army. I think the role of SCO is significant either after withdrawal of NATO and before that.

Now it is very important for Afghanistan to increase its partnership , it needs to have keen strategic partnership not only with western allies, NATO but also with regional players like Shanghai Cooperation Organization and neighboring countries with which it’s most potential interests can be sought, some pessimist could say that by presence of western allies and NATO it will be difficult attracting the cooperation of SCO, but if we make the issue more accurate then we will reach the fact that one single side cannot tackle the problem lonely by itself, because the problem is a regional and even international, there is necessary a joint effort by taking part of all involved players.

Economy

And from economic perspective, there is much required economic relationship between Afghanistan and member states of this organization, for Afghanistan to sustainably develop its economy; it needs the cooperation of the member states of the organization. The cooperation of member states of the organization especially three observer states, Pakistan, India and Iran is vital for accessing the Afghanistan to sea and global markets. As China one of the leading states of SCO, is big investor in Afghanistan, there are many important projects which are vital for China, one is building Gas Pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to China. And some other projects which have the geopolitical and economic importance in region, like transportation, the project of Railway which will cross the territory of Afghanistan and the Gas Pipeline to transfer the gas of Turkmenistan to the Pakistan and India by crossing the Afghan territory, the project of transferring the Electric Energy of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan.

SCO can focus more on developing Afghanistan’s legal economy and improving its basic economic infrastructure, including that related to transportation and investments that endanger employments opportunities. Measure to promote this goal could include financing joint projects in Afghanistan, reducing barriers to SCO trade with that country, and otherwise helping integrate Afghanistan into the rest of Central Asia to the benefit of the SCO countries and as well as Afghanistan.

Even outside the security domain, the SCO has yet to develop institutional mechanisms to find major economic reconstruction projects in Afghanistan or finance other forms of aid. Since the combined GDP of SCO countries ranks third in the world economy, they definitely could contribute large sums to Afghanistan if they have the will to do so [4].

As one of member states of SCO, Kazakhstan in recent years played remarkable role of partnership in Afghanistan, recently as a part of its Humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, the government of Kazakhstan allocated $50 mln, to implement the agreement on Cooperation in Education with Afghan government, under this agreement Kazakhstan will educate 1000 afghan students from 20102014.

Countering Drug Trafficking

In April 2006, the members established a SCOAfghan contact group to provide a coordinating mechanism for their growing number of Afghanistan-related initiatives. In their August 2007 Bishkek Declaration on international security, SCO members expressed alarm about ― threat of narcotics coming from Afghanistan and its negative effect on Central Asia‖ and called for combining international efforts on creation of anti-narcotics belts around Afghanistan.

Russia’s growing concern remained for drug trafficking in Afghanistan, in 2007 in Bishkek summit, the Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the foreign ministries of SCO members to recognize an international conference on Afghanistan, also create a counternarcotic security zone around Afghanistan. Following Moscow’s lead, the SCO has repeatedly criticized NATO for failing to suppress narcotics trafficking and terrorism in Afghanistan.

At the March 2009 Moscow conference, a joint SCO-Afghan statement identified narcotics trafficking as the main concern.

In June 2010, in first Russian international conference on ―Drug Production in Afghanistan‖ the head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service Victor Ivanov estimated that more than two million of Russian citizens are now addicted [5].

Improving Regional Law Enforcement Cooperation

Effective law enforcement cooperation at the international level is essential to combating the transnational threats of drug trafficking, human trafficking and organized crime.

The United Nation Office on Drugs and crimes (UNODC) has launched a project, so called Central Asian Regional Information and coordination center that serves as a regional focal point for communication, analysis and exchange of operational information in ―real time‖ on cross border crime as well as a center for organization and coordination of joint operations [6].

Also there is an Action plan adopted by SCO and Afghanistan, so called plan of Action of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states and Afghanistan on combating terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crimes, despite this effort there is little progress in decreasing these challenges [7].

All the countries in the region ratified the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, UN Convention against Corruption and the majority of the anti-terrorism instruments including the latest convention against terrorism financing and nuclear terrorism. All the countries adopted essential drug-related legislation that brought it in closer compliance with the UN drug control conventions. To effective struggle against terrorism and drug trafficking, there should be close cooperation between SCO members and Afghanistan, the integration of national legislation with these legal instruments and multilateral legal assistance to implement the provision of these Conventions could be essential for preventing those crimes.

The three major international drug control treaties, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, amended in 1971, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, are mutually supportive and complementary. Afghanistan is a member of second and third mentioned conventions [8].

According to Afghan Constitution( Article 7) Afghanistan shall observe the international treaties to which it is a party, further more in this Article has been emphasized on preventing the cultivation and smuggling of narcotics and it’s production as well [9].

So, based on these legal provisions, there should be a legally binding inter-states agreement in region by which should be outlined the specific areas of legal cooperation, preventative measures and measure to investigate and proceeding for possible committed transboundries crimes, as well as extradition, mutual legal assistance, money laundering and financing of terrorism, and institutional development and capacity building.

Possibility of Becoming Afghanistan as Full member from economic and security perspective there are many interconnections which bring Afghanistan and SCO more closer, despite these opportunities there are some concerns remained as threats for Afghanistan to get full membership, military presence of western allies, instability which might be difficult decision for SCO how to response the situation, while tow leading members, namely China and Russia are not agree to be military involved in Afghanistan. In case of becoming Afghanistan as full member, the challenges from which this country is suffering will be the challenges of SCO too.

There are many other observer members like Iran which has showed interest to get the full membership, in 2010 Tashkent summit SCO members has agreed on some rules to accepting the new members but still hasn’t founded any mechanism outlining specific criteria for accepting the new members, as Iran applied for full membership on 24 March 2008, however, because of ongoing sanctions levied by the United Nations, it is blocked from admission as a new member. The SCO stated that any country under U.N. sanctions cannot be admitted.

For the admitting the new members there is necessary developing a mechanism, that is to say under which conditions a country can get the full membership, also there should be a mechanism to responding the future possible conflict between member states either current conflict, as right now between Pakistan and India, and between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Conclusion

Despite these measures which are taken by SCO in declaration and statement forms, it’s activities in Afghanistan limited to issuing joint declarations, unlike CSTO, NATO and OSCE the SCO members haven’t engaged in collective counternarcotic operations and didn’t provide joint training to Afghan counter narcotics and other law enforcement bodies, except little implement to the Action plan adopted at their March 2009 Conference. The SCO can play significant role alongside NATO and in general international community. Shanghai Cooperation Organization can realize it’s role by pushing the tow its observer members Pakistan and Iran to work with Afghanistan Peace process, specially Pakistan should honestly cooperate with peace talk, the success of the peace talk will be in favor of all countries, which are being affected by threats of terrorism.

A stable, developed and prosperous Afghanistan is in need of SCO member states, International community and Iran and Pakistan.

 

 

  1. The official site of SCO; http://www.sectsco.org/EN123/
  2. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s momentum towards a mature security alliance, Paper by Marcel de hass, Netherlands Institute of International Relations, The Hague.
  3. The Shanghai cooperation organization and Afghanistan: challenges and opportunities? Paper by Richard Afghanistan Regional forum, no.3, December 2012
  4. The Shanghai cooperation organization and Afghanistan: challenges and opportunities? Paper by Richard Afghanistan Regional forum, no.3, December 2012
  5. The Shanghai cooperation organization and Afghanistan: challenges and opportunities? Paper by Richard Afghanistan Regional forum, no.3, December 2012
  6. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-trafficking/legal-framework.html
  7. http://www.un.int/russia/new/MainRoot/docs/off_news/270309/newen4.htm
  8. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-trafficking/legal-framework.html 9 The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan , January 26,2004

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