UAE becomes ‘dialogue partner’ of SCO

UAE becomes dialogue partner Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), according to Gulf media reports.

The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding at the meeting in Goa, India. The UAE’s decision is part of a larger trend in the region, with countries joining a group with heavyweights – such as Russia, China and India.

The SCO also includes Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.This will be seen as another example China and Russia is moving into the Middle East, countries may be hedging between a US-led hegemonic international order and a multi-polar world – backed by Russia, Pakistan, Iran, India, Turkey and others who prefer to undercut US and Western foreign policy focus in Asia.

China, Russia march into Middle East as nations hedge against world order

Iran, which also signed a memorandum of understanding to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, is not the only country in the Middle East that wants to cooperate with the organization, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain — and now the United Arab Emirates.

While Iran’s membership in the SCO counts as sanctioned countries joining the Sino-Russian bloc is beneficial to Tehran, the decisions of other countries in the region reflect more about their attitudes toward U.S. hegemony. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt are all close partners of the United States; Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt are all at peace with Israel; Qatar is a major non-NATO ally The United States, while Türkiye is a member of NATO.

The Middle East-SCO partnership is a fairly new trend. Turkey moved closer in 2012, but Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia became dialogue partners only last year, as did Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The region is increasingly recognizing the importance of the SCO.

Robert Rabier, a professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, noted the importance of this trend.

“Led by China and Russia, both organizations are trying to help the world transition from a U.S.-led unipolar world to a multipolar one. organize parallel organizations and de-dollarize global markets,” he said, further noting that “what is happening is the latest sign of a new international order reshaping. Yet our foreign policy establishment, egged on by the mainstream media, is Turn a blind eye and focus on defeating Russia as a panacea to curb the spread of illiberal democracy.”

An Arab news article published last year may well reflect the attitude of the region towards the SCO.

“The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 as the successor of the Shanghai Five, and is the largest regional organization in Eurasia, covering about 40% of the world’s population and 30% of global economic output. Due to its focus on security and economic cooperation With its impressive profile, the SCO has gained enormous traction across Asia. Not surprisingly, a number of countries from the Middle East and Southeast Asia are queuing up to become dialogue partners, observers and members.”

The article states that the United States considers the bloc hostile, but the authors claim that the bloc is just part of a new regionalism in developing countries, comparing it to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“They are both structurally similar intergovernmental organizations that challenge the EU’s model of supranational integration … The SCO also has notable similarities to the GCC and ASEAN in its origins and evolution. It was created to fight terror the three evils of extremism, extremism, and separatism. The Gulf Cooperation Council and ASEAN have also emerged to deal with security threats from Iran and communism respectively. While regional security remains a common concern for both organizations, their real success lies in Economic Integration: A Common Market in the Gulf Cooperation Council and an Economic Community in ASEAN.”

The rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and others such as the BRICS and CICA represents a shift in the international order. In June 2019, a report in the Jerusalem Post pointed out that the CICA and Shanghai Cooperation Organization summits held in Central Asia that year illustrated how the influence of the United States was being challenged. At the time, Iran was seeking to play a bigger role in these groups.

Today, Iran and Saudi Arabia are reconciled, and many countries in the Middle East are also repairing relations. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization can play a greater potential role. For countries excluded from the group, such as Israel, it will be emblematic of countries hedging their bets and those with a firm foothold in the West.