SCO 20 YEARS: KEY ACHIEVEMENTS AND THE ROLE OF CHINA

The article analyzes the process of development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the historical aspect and its current state. SCO was created as a regional association to maintain stability and security. Today, China is stepping up its efforts to boost regional economic cooperation. Based on the analysis of UNCTAD statistics for 2001–2019, the authors justified the conclusion that the economic potential of the SCO has significantly increased. However, this growth is related not to the economic interaction in SCO, but with the expansion, and with the growth of the individual countries’ economies, primarily the PRC. The analysis confirms that the share of bilateral trade and the volume of mutual (especially Chinese) investments in the SCO are growing. International cooperation in certain areas has little real support at the level of the Organization as a whole. At the same time, the existing successes of the SCO countries in the economic sphere, the attraction of significant foreign investment and modern technologies, the gradual diversification of national economies, as well as new initiatives of the People’s Republic of China, determine the deepening of economic cooperation, the mechanisms of which are of scientific interest. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to study the peculiarities of the SCO evolution and the positions of individual countries in SCO. The study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the nature and features of the processes of economic cooperation and development in the region and the positions of individual countries. © 2021