President Hamid Karzai is going to attend the meeting of the Shangai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing on 6-7 of June. It is expected that Afghan President would have an opportunity to strengthen the regional ties as it is expected that alongside the meeting of SCO, he would be able to meet the leaders of major regional powers so as to discuss the Afghan problems and regional issues.
SCO is an organization that was established in 2001 by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to enhance the regional cooperation among the member countries and in certain ways try to limit the influence of the international organizations that are backed by the Western countries.
Afghanistan has been attending the meetings of SCO as guest country; however, it would be given the status of observer state in the meeting. Other observer states for the Organization include India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia; whereas two other countries – Belarus and Sri Lanka are its dialogue partners.
SCO Meeting will be important for Afghanistan in so many ways. First of all there are expectations that Afghanistan may move ahead with China in their strategic relationship. Afghan President's spokesperson AimalFaizi has said, "During his visit, President Karzai would sign with President Hu Jintao a document on an Afghanistan-China strategic cooperation agreement." He further added, "The accord would pave the ground for long-term cooperation between the two countries in political, economic, security and cultural spheres." China is considered as the most powerful country in the region and can play a tremendous role in Afghanistan.
Even after withdrawal of international troops in 2014, it can support Afghanistan economically to a great extent. It, already, has secured oil and copper mining concessions in Afghanistan. On the other hand it has pledged an amount of $ 20 million to assist Afghanistan.JananMosazai, Afghan foreign ministry spokesperson, has said,"This new step is a solid reaffirmation of the ever growing importance and significance of the friendship and economic, political, cultural and other fields of cooperation and partnership between Afghanistan and China."
President Karzai, according to a statement from his spokesperson, will also meet the Russian President Vlidamir Putin, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad on the sideline of the SCO meeting. It is important to note that there have been many concerns raised by the leaders of the mentioned countries after Afghanistan signed strategic partnership agreement with US.
Iran, in this regard has clearly mentioned that the agreement is an endeavor on the part of US to lengthen its presence in the region as it lacked some definite decisions regarding the number of US troops that would remain in Afghanistan after complete withdrawal of the and the existence of the permanent US bases in the region.
Pakistan, on the other hand, has always felt the presence of US in its immediate neighborhood as a threat to its sovereignty. Moreover, its relations with US are at their lowest point. Therefore, they are not able to accept the Afghan-US strategic partnership agreement readily.
To add fuel to the fire, currently there have been claims by Afghan media and politicians that Iran and Pakistan were trying to create hurdles for the approval of Afghan-US pact by the Afghan parliament. And then there is the current strict decision by Iran and Pakistan regarding the Afghan refugees in their country.
Their tightening decisions in this regard show that they want to pressurize Afghan government in certain ways. Nevertheless, it is better to see an agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan regarding the issue of Afghan refugees. But with Iran, the situation seems to be getting very sarcastic recently.
And let's not forget Russia! Russia has shown dissatisfaction from the schedule announced by NATO for the complete withdrawal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, back in April, had said,"As long as Afghanistan is not able to ensure by itself the security in the country, the artificial timelines of withdrawal are not correct and they should not be set this way…. By the way, our Central Asian partners are also concerned about that. China and many other states ask the same questions."
With such tight relations with the neighboring countries, this opportunity is really immense for Afghanistan. It is basically the test of Afghan authorities' diplomatic prudence. By maintaining and following the conditions of the agreements with the US and European countries, they have to strengthen ties with the regional powers, who basically see their interests quite opposite to what the US and European countries believe.
Though, most of the strategic partnership agreements signed with different countries do not pose evident threats to the region, the regional countries will be annoyed by growing influence of the Western countries. President Karzai would be having a really busy weak with a lot of work to do.
He has to receive assurance from China that it would sign a strategic deal with his country. Make Russia believe that Afghan authorities will be capable enough to guarantee peace on its own. Assure Iran and Pakistan that the deal will not harm their interests.
The last task would be the most difficult task and it will not be successful by just reiterating that Afghan-US pact will not harm them. Rather they have to sit together and promise to have detailed discussion on the issues and try to figure out each other's stance on the situation and should carve out the ways for establishing strong ties.
Afghanistan needs to realize one very important fact and that is the neighboring countries are influenced the most by the situation in Afghanistan and in response it itself is influenced the most by the situation and policies in the neighboring countries.
Afghanistan has already signed a strategic agreement with India; following the same example, it needs to bring other countries closer to itself, as well. Moreover, if Afghanistan is really interested in changing the dream of linking the country with the entire region through trade links, it has to take the initiative.
On the other hand the regional countries must also try to cooperate with Afghanistan in the issues that are common to them and must start to see the common interest of the entire region, apart from their national interests. Ultimately, strong regional ties will help each country and can prove to be a strong body in the international socio-political scenario.