Evolution of Priorities in Shanghai Cooperation Organization since its Establishment up to 2019

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 1996 at the initiative of China to solve border problems of five neighboring countries, and today, after 23 years of its creation, has become a major regional agreement. With 20 percent of the world’s oil and 50 percent of the world’s gas reserves, it has the potential to become one of the world’s largest international economic and energy hubs in the coming decades, managing and controlling much of the world’s energy. A study of statistical data from the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization shows that its members have the potential to become one of the world’s largest international economic, commercial, foreign, energy and military investment hubs soon. Extensive geographical Territory, too many populations, vast energy resources, possessions of nuclear weapons, strong armed forces, having veto power in the United Nations Security Council, and other factors give the organization great economic, political, and military potentials. It has both the largest gas producers and the largest consumer members, so it is the mainstay of future competition for energy resources management. After reviewing the past developments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, this paper examines the organization’s capabilities in terms of economic and energy security and shows how this limited regional agreement has become a huge regional cooperation organization. The article hypothesizes that despite its great potentials, this organization will not become a global economic and strategic hub. In this article, we review the energy transmission routes in the Shanghai Space Agency, the regional conflicts that threaten the security of these routes, as well as the organization's two-decade developments, and review the goals and policies of China and Russia. The study found that geographically, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is one of the largest agreements ever made, with a large portion of the world’s population, energy resources and the world economic market. We also reviewed the evolution of the organization’s goals, ranging from resolving border disputes between China and Russia to economic cooperation and securing energy transmission lines. Taken together, these factors suggest that the organization has the potential to become the world's largest energy, economic and strategic hub. But after about a quarter of a century, the Shanghai Organization has not achieved such a position. The reason must be found in two important political and economic factors. Economically, the condition for the success of a regional pact is that the economies of the member states must complement each other in some way and that the economic prosperity and needs of these countries must be met within the organization itself. This is not the case with the Shanghai Treaty. In this globalized world, for example, China’s economy is more tied to the huge US market than to its allies in Shanghai cooperation organization. On the other hand, Russia’s great power in exporting energy resources and its income depends on its European customers rather than China. Politically, unlike EU member states that have a liberal democratic system and a common ideology, members of the Shanghai Organization have a different worldview and different governmental and ideological systems. The prerequisite of globalization in this age imposes a special international cooperation on countries that are not necessarily in line with the requirements of a regional treaty. For this reason, although the goals of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have changed and expanded over the past twenty years, it seems unlikely that it will become a major player in the world scene.