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Shanghai Group comes of age

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, JAN. 10. The Shanghai security group will come of age next week, when its two permanent bodies, a secretariat and an anti-terrorist set-up, become operational.

The secretariat of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will be formally inaugurated in Beijing on Jan. 15 by the Foreign Ministers of the six member states — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — a Russian Foreign Ministry source said today.

The secretariat will handle organisational and paperwork for the SCO's apex bodies, which include four councils: of heads of states, heads of Government, Foreign Ministers and national coordinators. On the same day, a regional anti-terrorist structure will be unveiled in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

"With the two working bodies in place, SCO begins operating as a full-fledged international organisation complete with its working mechanisms and budget," the Foreign Ministry source said.

The Shanghai security group, set up in 1996 to help reduce tension on the former Soviet border with China, later became a forum for regional cooperation and the fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism and was instituted as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2001. The organisational formation gained momentum after the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Last May the leaders of the Shanghai group approved the organisation's structure and set a Jan. 2004 deadline for completing formalities.

Analysts in Russia said the Shanghai grouping was emerging as a counterweight to growing American presence in Central Asia.

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