Russia's Security Council Chief Features Importance of Shanghai Cooperation Council

May 22 (EIRNS) - The Shanghai Cooperation Organization "is turning into an important independent political agency in Asia," Igor Ivanov, who is Secretary of the Russian Security Council, told the prominent Russian publication, Novosti in an interview published today. Ivanov will join other Secretaries of the SCO Security Council in Bishkek, Kyrgystan, on May 25, for a meeting to prepare for the SCO summit there in mid-August. Ivanov also dismissed the frequent geopolitical speculation, that the SCO is becoming an "anti-NATO" military alliance. "The SCO's goal is to enhance the collective efforts to curtail regional and global negative trends," Ivanov told Novosti. "We have never considered its transformation into a military alliance."

The SCO's founding policy was to resolve regional conflicts left over from the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union in Eurasia. It was founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, and Tajikistan, and later joined by Uzbekistan. Mongolia, as well as India, Pakistan, and Iran, all have observer status, meaning that the SCO is a forum for three of the largest nations on earth, and the nations which, along with the United States, could change the entire direction of world policy, as U.S. statesman Lyndon LaRouche emphasizes.

Ivanov said that the SCO "Security Council secretaries concentrate on the national interests and security of each SCO member and the Organization as a whole." They remain in close contact, he said. In Bishkek, they will discuss "broader cooperation" for security in the SCO region, with focus on peace and stability. The SCO focuses on terrorism, extremism, and separatism, challenges which "require concerted efforts. Ivanov said he "would add one more on this list - illegal drug trafficking, which poses particular danger and funds the first three evils. It is important that the SCO allows us to jointly respond to the situations that prejudice peace, stability and security in the region. By making the SCO's work in this direction more effective we will contribute to countering regional and global challenges in the interests of international stability."

As for challenging NATO, Ivanov said, "it is enough to look at a map of the world to see how strange this allegation is.. The SCO's goal is to enhance the collective efforts to curtail regional and global negative trends. We have never considered its transformation into a military alliance."