Posted on 06/17/2004 10:37:30 AM PDT by TexKat
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - The presidents of China, Russia and four Central Asian nations met Thursday to breathe life into a security alliance and open an anti-terrorism center, part of efforts by Beijing and Moscow to counter the U.S. military presence in the region.
The leaders were joined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who warned terrorists have continued infiltrating Afghanistan and that eradicating terrorism is a "long-term fight."
The one-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, marked what Russian President Vladimir Putin said was the start of its work to become a vital international institution. He acknowledged the group would help Russia exert its influence across the region, rich in under-exploited energy resources and a crossroads between Asia and Europe.
"The voice of Russia will be heard here," Putin told reporters after the summit.
To ensure China is also heard, President Hu Jintao offered $900 million in credit to alliance countries, which include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The exact terms of the loans, intended to boost economic cooperation, weren't immediately disclosed.
China and Russia have pushed the SCO, originally founded in 1996 and renamed in 2001, as a means of responding to increased U.S. regional influence since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The attacks led to American troops' historic deployment in former Soviet Central Asia for operations in neighboring Afghanistan. Hundreds of U.S. forces are based in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Ahead of Thursday's talks, Russia and China signed separate bilateral agreements with Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous country with its strongest military. Russia's Lukoil signed a $1 billion investment deal with Uzbekistan's state oil and gas company, and Putin said energy giant Gazprom was working on similar plans.
Karzai joined the talks as a guest, and Putin called for a contact group to be established between the alliance and Afghanistan.
"By helping Afghanistan, we are helping ourselves," said Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev.
Karzai said Afghanistan was eager to cooperate with the SCO and open its borders for regional trade. "The future of your countries is strongly linked to the future of Afghanistan," he said.
The SCO anti-terror center in Tashkent will be a think tank and information clearing house for alliance countries. In a resolution, the leaders also called for close cooperation with the United Nations to address global and regional threats.
"One nation can't stand alone with the current threats," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov said anti-terrorism efforts shouldn't focus only on military action.
"We should destroy the many radical extremist centers that create the ideology of hatred, those who poison minds and turn youths into zombies," Karimov told the meeting.
Uzbek authorities say Islamic extremists trained by al-Qaida instructors carried out a wave of violence targeting police this year that killed at least 47 people, mostly alleged militants.
However, opposition critics have said the attacks were linked to domestic discontent over Karimov's repressive regime. Karimov himself acknowledged Thursday that poverty and social discord can also feed terrorism, but said its main cause was ideology imported from abroad.
Uzbekistan drew fresh criticism Thursday for alleged crackdowns ahead of the summit.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said at least two activists planning to stage peaceful protests were beaten by unidentified assailants, while other would-be demonstrators were detained along with their children or prevented from leaving their homes.
ussian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Hu Jintao shake hands before their talks at the security summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Thursday, June 17, 2004. The presidents of China, Russia and four Central Asian nations fortified their security alliance Thursday with a meeting to discuss regional threats and inaugurate an anti-terrorism center in Uzbekistan. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
"The voice of Russia will be heard here," Putin told reporters after the summit.
"We should destroy the many radical extremist centers that create the ideology of hatred, those who poison minds and turn youths into zombies," Karimov told the meeting.
Behold, the Trans-Eurasian Axis, which will try to conquer the World, resulting in World War Three.
19 July 2001
'Shanghai Five' expands to combat Islamic radicals
By JTSM contributor John Daly
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, President Jiang Zemin of China and the leaders of four former Soviet Central Asian states signed a declaration on 15 June creating the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO).
The original 'Shanghai Five' of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has expanded to include Uzbekistan as a new member. Uzbekistan's membership changes the orientation of the organisation; while it does not have a border with China, it does have a frontier with Afghanistan, and its Islamic dissident elements are the most active in the region.
The organisation is a diplomatic innovation for China, traditionally isolationist and wary of multilateral alliances. The original 'Shanghai Five' was formed in 1996 as a forum to resolve old Soviet-Chinese border disputes. Under Putin, China and Russia have grown much closer, bound by their mutual distrust of US hegemony and their perceived need to promote a multipolar world. The republics of Central Asia have been caught between the two regional giants while facing immense internal problems of economic stagnation and growing political unrest.
The organisation has the capacity for expansion. Pakistan has already expressed an interest in observer status, and Mongolia and India are considering future membership as well. According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Iran and Turkmenistan have also expressed an interest in the organisation's activities. According to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, even "the USA would like to join the Shanghai group". Should India, Pakistan and Mongolia enlarge the organisation, more than half the population of Eurasia, from the Baltic to the Pacific, will be arrayed in a loose political, economic and military alliance.
Western powers snubbed
The losers will be the United States and Turkey, whose tepid regional policies have convinced the Central Asian leadership that their immediate security concerns are better met by Moscow and Beijing. Zemin is due to visit Moscow in July to sign a pact of friendship and co-operation, further cementing the Sino-Russian partnership. The co-operation builds on the demilitarisation of the 4,600-mile long border begun under the 1997 treaty on reducing military forces in border regions. The heads of state of the member nations will meet once a year, with government officials meeting on a regular basis to co-ordinate activities. For Kyrgyzstan, the benefits were immediate; on 18 June the Kyrgyz defence minister, Esen Topoev, announced that China was giving Kyrgyzstan 8 million yuan (US$970,000) in military support.
United by Islamic dissident threat
What all members have in common is a growing unease with the Islamic fundamentalism seeping out of Afghanistan and inflaming their discontented populations. For the members, the common vector of fundamentalism remains Afghanistan. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev remarked at the gathering: "The cradle of terrorism, separatism and extremism is the instability in Afghanistan."
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