Published: 15 November 2016
The process of structural and functional transformation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) from the perspective of Uzbekistan is analyzed in this article by the author. This organization's functions are to represent and to shape common perspectives of the three regions - Eurasia, Central and South Asia. The features of the membership in the SCO of Uzbekistan, who seeks to use the format of the organization to effectively advance its interests, as well as to ensure the main principle of its foreign policy strategy - equidistance from all the "centers of power” are considered in the article. The author underlines that the expansion of the SCO by India and Pakistan becomes a challenge for Uzbekistan's foreign policy, because it is contrary to one of the principles of the Concept of foreign policy that prioritizes the various bilateral relations in the international activity. With the participation of two new countries, Uzbekistan falls into the center of the multilateral and eclectic policy in the framework of the SCO - a situation that Tashkent is still trying to avoid. The author reveals the main concerns of Uzbekistan with the expansion of the SCO and determines its inefficiency in resolving any conflicts or discrepancies among the existing six members of the organization, received new challenges, connected with the accession of the two nuclear-weapon states that have unresolved bilateral disputes, that can reduce the importance of the problems of the Central Asian region and influence on decision-making, which is achieved by consensus. Uzbekistan expresses concerns that the organization can converse into a military-political alliance. Also in the article, the author examines the issue of expansion of the SCO by Iran, which now has an observer status in the organization and comes to the conclusion that Uzbekistan has shown traditionally restrained reaction to the initiatives on the further expansion of the SCO, fearing that it will make the organization less manageable. The question of accession of Afghanistan to the SCO is considered. Tashkent exhibits vigilance in this regard. With regard to the transformation of the SCO in modern conditions the author comes to the conclusion that for Uzbekistan, that is a key state in the Central Asia and it faces the tense geopolitical environment - the optimal variant is to continue the demonstration of the committal to the expansion and extension of a constant dialogue with all the partners: member-states and observer-states in the SCO both on the inter-governmental and on the regional levels.
