On the international arena, Russia has tried to strengthen its position by joining forces with China through the Shanghai five. This grouping was created in 1996 to address the “deepening military trust at the border regions” and included Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In 2001 the group admitted Uzbekistan as the new member and then signed the Declaration of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).In the same year Russia and China signed the Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation. In 2002 the official charter of SCO was signed by all members. In 2004 Mongolia was admitted as an observer and in 2005 Iran, India and Pakistan received their observer status.
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SCO is evolving from a regional economic and security cooperation to something else. If the observer states were to actually join the SCO, it could become one of the most powerful organisations in the world. Russia and Iran combined would have more energy reserve and production capacity than any other nations on Earth. Population wise, the organisation would represent the over 2 billion people. Economically they would have the energy resources of Russia, Iran and caucuses plus the manufacturing might of the Chinese and burgeoning service industries of India. With the Russian space/military industrial complex behind them they would become a formidable world power.
To counter this US has tried to bring India into its camp. The US , despite all its declared goal of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, welcomed India into the nuclear club. US even offered to help India with its “civilian” nuclear technology. But Indians have taken a wait and see attitude. They are very concerned with their future energy supplies, and being close to both Russia and China, don’t want to side with a group unless they are absolutely sure that that group will win. Another problem is the Indian internal politics. Will the majority of Indians accept the US lead in international affairs?
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