''Gold is part of the new economic order''

From Finance and Economics

''One thing is certain: gold is not part of the old economic order, which is comprised of the US, UK, Euroland, and Japan. The new economic order is different, embodied in the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) with its members, observer states and affiliate nations. Those interested in the future course of precious metal and commodity prices should take the trouble to understand the significance of the SCO. The SCO is already driving prices in commodity markets, and this transfer of power from the old to the new economic order is of tectonic magnitude, but the pace is far from tectonic, more like volcanic.''

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''The SCO, China, Iran, and gold''

From GoldMoney

''I make no apology for returning to the subject of China, its role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and gold. Gold is now a strategic metal for present and future SCO governments, which between them have over 40% of the world’s population; and now that the price of gold is re-establishing its rising trend, understanding its future role as a replacement for the US dollar is increasingly urgent, because gold is wealth and this wealth is being transferred from west to east.''

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''Turkey seeks SCO membership''

From Indian Punchline
By MK Bhadrakumar

''During an interview with the popular Istanbul-based news channel 24 TV on Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan inter alia disclosed that Turkey is seeking membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It was only at the recent SCO summit at Beijing in June that Turkey became a ‘Dialogue Partner’. The induction as ‘Dialogue Partner’ was apparently at China’s initiative. In his interview, Erdogan said during his visit to Moscow earlier this month, he solicited support from President Vladimir Putin for the Turkish move.''

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SCO: ''Coping with changing times''

From Asia Times Online
MK Bhadrakumar

''The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has achieved a critical mass that cannot be ignored, albeit one that orbits Russia and China's shared needs to contain US inroads to their backyards. The two heavyweights last week added verve with a display of partnership at the SCO summit, yet the group's cohesion and ability to keep tags on the NATO-US caravan in Afghanistan is being tested, not least by Central Asian members on the periphery of power.''

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''The SCO 2012 Shanghai Summit – on the Way to New World Order''

From Strategic Culture

"The establishment of the SCO development bank and special account to advance regional economic development was an important part of economic agenda. Gradual transition to national currencies settlements and financing joint projects is a great step forward on the way to gradual economic integration. The member states agreed to enhance cooperation in transportation, energy, telecommunications and agriculture. They also believe it is necessary to promote cultural and educational exchanges and expand people-to-people contacts and social interaction."

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Half Of Humanity: ''SCO Opposes Global Military Interventions''

From Voltaire Net

''When the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states concluded their latest summit on Thursday, they unanimously rejected military intervention as a way to resolve international hotspot issues.

According to a statement that came after the summit, all SCO member countries oppose military intervention in Syria and reject the idea of a regime change in the country.''

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''China offers $10 billion loan to SCO members''

From The Hindu

''China will offer a loan of $10 billion to members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to promote economic development within the security grouping, President Hu Jintao announced here on Thursday.

The loan will also be used to aid the development of SCO members, Mr. Hu said while addressing an SCO summit here.

He also said that China will help train 1,500 experts from other members over the next three years. It is also going to provide 30,000 government scholarships and invite 10,000 Confucius Institute teachers and students to come to China for research and study over the next decade.

“We should build the SCO into a driving force to boost regional economic development,” he said.''

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''Russia and China pull together to counter US Asia drive''

From RT via Strategic Culture

''President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will cement its military alliance with China, including an increase in joint exercises in the Asia-Pacific. The move follows a US pledge to step up its naval presence in Asia in a bid to extend its influence.

"Recently joint navy exercises were held in the Yellow Sea, and they were the first of such exercises. We have agreed with Chairman Hu that we will continue such cooperation," Putin said following a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing.''

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''China and Russia flex muscle at the West''

From Asia Times Online

''Beijing and Moscow will send a clear message to the world at the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. The leaderships of China and Russia have drawn two lines in the sand - an unequivocal "No" to bombing Iran, and another unambiguous "No" to regime change in Syria brought about through a Western bombing campaign.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing yesterday to start his first overseas visit after he was elected as the Russian leader again, which highlights the importance he attaches to his country's relations with China. And in Beijing, no less, he is scheduled to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. This is indicative of the joint Russian and Chinese geopolitical strategy.''

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''Importance of India joining as a full member of the SCO''

From Russia & India Report

''New Delhi has already been knocking at the grouping’s door for the last three years as it sought a greater role in the SCO, in the light of fast changing geo-political situation in the region, in particular, in view of the planned US withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The possibility of an increase in the number of prospective partners of the SCO in the near future, India’s admission into the organization has rather gained an imperative importance.

However, the statement made by Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping on Wednesday in Beijing ruled out any decision on admitting India along with other observer members in the SCO at the summit in Beijing, stressing that there was no fixed timeframe for the expansion of the membership.''

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''SCO as a counter to NATO?''

From Russia & India Report

''The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is in for major changes, judging by the outcomes of the meeting of SCO foreign ministers in China’s capital ahead of the SCO summit scheduled to be held in Beijing on June 6-7.

The SCO was designed in the 1990s as an institution to build up confidence between Russia, China and four Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – primarily in the military sector. The SCO member states were united by the common threat of Islamic fundamentalism, kindled by the dominance of the Taliban in Afghanistan.''

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''SCO gaining political weight''

From Voice of Russia

''The regular summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is scheduled for June 6-7 in Beijing. According to the results of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs’ preparatory meeting, which took place the day before in the capital of China, serious changes are awaiting this organization.

The SCO was created in the mid-nineties as a structure aimed at strengthening confidence in the military field between Russia, China, and four Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO members were also united by the common threat of Islamic fundamentalism associated with Taliban rule in Afghanistan.''

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''Russia wants India, Pakistan in SCO''

From Ianslive

"Russia wants the process of India and Pakistan's membership to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) speeded up, RIA Novosti reported.

Russia's acting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this while taking part in a meeting of foreign ministers of SCO member states here Friday.

He said delaying the decision on the membership of India and Pakistan was "counter-productive".

The SCO, set up in 2001, includes Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan."

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''Shanghai Cooperation Organization Trapped in Identity Searches''

From Strategic Culture

"It is clear at the moment that many of the unbridged gaps between SCO members are actually widening as the post-Soviet Central Asia is being ripped apart under conflicting external influences. Neither the political and military, nor the economic potentials of the cooperation in the SCO framework have been fully unlocked so far, and the assessment is fair that bilateral activities such as massive Chinese investments in Tajikistan's infrastructures or the energy cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan actually constitute the prevalent form of transactions under the nominally multilateral SCO umbrella."

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The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: 'Assessing China'

from journal of energy security....


"The SCO is primarily an organization promoted by China in order to fulfill its energy objectives which illustrate China’s (PRC’s) geostrategic dilemmas. If Beijing has been the main benefactor of the SCO, its partners have not been marginalized, and have also benefited from the relationships the organization engenders.  Further the SCO could develop and expand even further would all its members recognize that energy-related projects are perhaps the most important raison-d’être of the organization."

''SCO can play ‘bigger role’ in Afghanistan'': Chinese FM

from ap of pakistan.....

"China wants the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to play a bigger role in Afghanistan’s peace and reconstruction process, said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Yang made the call in his speech at the International Afghanistan Conference in the German city of Bonn on Monday, where he also pledged that China would continue to “take concrete steps” to help Afghanistan.

About 100 countries and international organizations were represented among the 1,000 conference delegates, with some 60 foreign ministers in attendance. But the event was overshadowed by Pakistan’s absence"............READ MORE

'China and Russia tussle over SCO's future'

from asiatimesonline.........

"Beijing's newfound interest in SCO defense and security issues should not be a surprise for several reasons. One is the pending withdrawal from Afghanistan by the US military. Though "phased," it is unlikely to stabilize the war-torn country, and the growing insurgency in Afghanistan is sure to have a spillover effect on its neighbors. A more proactive approach is needed. 

Moreover, the past decade has witnessed China's growing economic presence in Central Asia, where thousands of kilometers of oil and gas pipelines are vulnerable to sabotage. Since early 2011, Beijing has watched as its economic holdings evaporated in many parts of the Arab world and North Africa. If the SCO is to avoid such a consequence, its member states must improve the current security mechanism"............READ MORE

Pepe Escobar: 'High stakes in Eurasia's 'New Great Game'

from aljazeera......

"China and Russia will benefit from US mistakes in Afghanistan, and the operation in Libya, gaining influence and energy"


"In these past few years, up to the - largely botched - Africom/NATO operation in Libya, the US strategy has been aimed at the militarisation of the entire arc between the Mediterranean and Central Asia.

Africom, the US Africa command implemented in 2008 with a headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, has now engaged in its first African war, in Libya. Africom aims at rapid intervention all across Africa but also has its sights on the "New" Middle East and Central Asia.
So now the US strategy can finally be examined in detail as a militarisation of the Mediterranean-Central Asian arch.

That would assure the US a wedge between Southern Europe and Northern Africa; assure military control over Northern Africa and Southwest Asia, with particular emphasis on Turkey, Syria and Iran; and "cut" Eurasia in two. In sum: divide and rule.

So this geopolitical road map was bound from the start to target Syria (already happening); Iran (a perpetual neo-con dream); and even Erdogan's Turkey - all useful for a US advance in Eurasia.

Meanwhile Eurasian powers Russia, China and India - all BRICS member countries - not to mention Iran and Turkey themselves, are slowly calibrating their response.

In the midst of this ever-shifting accommodation of tectonic plates, Afghanistan assumes an even more crucial role. It could - and should - recover its status of crossroads/hub bringing Central Asia and South Asia together. Yet that may ultimately happen not under American sponsorship - but under Chinese and Russian partnership.

The Moscow/Beijing counterpunch is to organise the SCO as a rival to NATO in terms of providing security for Central Asia - and for Afghanistan. Wily Hamid Karzai has seen which way the wind is blowing - and he's all for it"...........READ MORE 

'Potential NATO Rival to Fill Security Vacuum in Afghanistan?'

not to mention, they want a new reserve currency as well..........from blog.american.com.........

"Last week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, was hailed by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi for its “historic significance.” And in many ways it was historic. But for an event that brought together heads of state from China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the most recent SCO Summit received surprisingly scant attention in the United States. Here’s what you likely missed:

• Participants expressed concern about events in the Arab world while supporting “the drive of regional states in the path of democratic development in accordance with their specific cultural and historical characteristics.”

• Afghan President Hamid Karzai formally requested SCO observer status, which gives non-members the ability to participate in some of the organization’s activities.

• Pakistan and India—already observers—filed official membership applications last year, and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari announced his expectation that Islamabad’s submission “will be put on a fast track.” Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna voiced his country’s desire for “a larger and deeper role” in the organization and said that New Delhi shares the SCO’s goal of a more “democratic international system.”

• “The member states believe that unilateral and unlimited build-up of missile defense by one state or by a small group of states can cause damage to strategic stability and international security,” read a joint declaration. Asked whether Moscow pushed through the statement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded, “No one talked anyone into it.”

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad characteristically criticized the existing world order as “managed and run by slavers and colonizers of the past,” adding, “I believe together we [the SCO] can reform the way the world is managed. We can restore the tranquility of the world.”

• In a Moscow Times op-ed on the day of the summit, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev wrote, “It is possible that the SCO will assume responsibility for many issues in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of coalition forces in 2014.”

Individually, these statements may not amount to much. But collectively, and in the context of an impending U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan, they should raise eyebrows. In some limited respects, the aims of the SCO are comparable to those of NATO in the early years of the Cold War. NATO in the 1950s was an alliance implicitly constructed to—in the words of its first Secretary General Lord Ismay—“keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” Moreover, with the exception of Portugal, Greece, and Turkey, it was an association of like-minded democracies. The SCO conversely is an association of like-minded autocracies whose raison d’être, from Moscow’s perspective, is to keep the Americans out of Central Asia, the Russians in, and the Chinese down in terms of their overall regional influence"..................LINK

'Shanghai Cooperation Organization vs Bilderberg: Where are the real decisions being made?'

from axis of logic........

"Editor's Note: Eric Walberg has put into the proverbial 'nutshell' the biggest picture of what's happening today in international relations. This essay should be of interest to all who have thought that the US/NATO Mafia will be able to continue to run roughshod around the planet, unhindered. Nobody can predict the manifold outcomes but we have always held that SCO, with Russia's pugnacity and millenia of Chinese wisdom about which few in the West have a clue, have been woefully under-estimated by western powers".

As the Western elite gathered in picturesque St Moritz to grapple with pressing world crises, the outsiders met in the bleak steppes of Central Asia. 


Last week’s 10th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Kazakh capital Astana highlighted how the major rivals to empire, led by Russia and China -- themselves rivals, are trying to fashion an alternative to US hegemony.

China is clearly the power beyind the SCO, its “wheels” offering the region much more economically than Russia, but the common will of all to keep the US at bay is a balm to all. What better way to ease tensions between all these rivals than through SCO security drills enhancing the inter-operability of militaries and law-enforcement agencies? According to MK Bhadrakumar this will make “NATO (and Pax Americana) simply irrelevant to an entire landmass”.

Another topic at the SCO meeting was how to move towards a new world currency, one established not by world bankers at secretive Bilderberg meetings, but openly, by the major world resource and population centres as represented by the SCO. Nazarbayev said that a healthy supranational currency is needed and recommended a return to some form of gold standard. “The SCO is capable of doing this. The swap operations that we have started is the first step. This is necessary for equal cooperation within the SCO."

If by this time next year, India and Pakistan are admitted, and if non-dollar denominated “swaps” reach a critical mass, Bilderberg may well have to put the SCO and what to do about it at the top of its next agenda"............LINK