Illustration: Liu Rui /GT

The 16th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, later this month. Leaders of the SCO members and observers will make plans for future multilateral cooperation and discuss institution building and other key issues. As the 2015 Ufa summit passed a resolution on starting the procedures of granting India and Pakistan full membership of the organization, how to promote the procedures and the effects of the expansion will be top on agenda this year.

Since establishment, the SCO has been following the principles of openness and transparency. The group is willing to cooperate with nations and international organizations that recognize the SCO principles, and welcomes countries applying for membership. The SCO does not restrict its members from joining other international organizations or signing up to treaties, nor prevent members from taking on other international duties. The SCO invites guests and representatives from concerned international organizations to its summit every year. As an observer of the UN General Assembly, the SCO has signed memorandum of cooperation with a number of regional organizations.

With growing influence, the SCO has received membership applications from many countries, but it is cautious and has taken a number of factors into considerations when handling these applications. As a young organization, the SCO still needs to improve its institution building and solidify the basis for cooperation, and thus hasty expansion is ill-advised.

The SCO also needs to draw lessons from other international organizations in terms of expansion. Expansion risks bringing internal conflicts, increasing decision-making costs and dampening the unity of the organization. Therefore, the SCO has made legal and documentary preparations for the first stage, and established specific teams to research and determine the threshold for expansion. Meanwhile, the SCO fully respects each member state based on the principle of consultation and consensus.

During the 2010 Tashkent summit, member leaders approved the SCO rules of procedure and regulations on the admission procedure for new members. While the former has set up concrete entry conditions for new members, the latter has provided a basis to improve the internal mechanisms and organizational procedures.

The 2014 Dushanbe summit approved procedures for the granting of SCO member status and a new version of the model memorandum on the obligations of applicant states, further clarifying the principles and procedures of expansion. This symbolized the end of the paper-preparatory phase to admit new members. On this basis, the 2015 Ufa summit formally started to expand, admitting Belarus as an observer, and Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal as dialogue partners.

Generally, international organizations need a long and tough time to expand. Thus, observers are concerned about SCO expansion, especially the admission of India and Pakistan. The two nations, which are hostile over the issues of Kashmir and anti-terrorism, have long been locked into a state of military confrontation, and share conflicting views over the Afghanistan issue and other regional affairs.

The hostility between the two states is unlikely to be dispelled in the short time. Together with their complicated relations with China and Russia, analysts believe their admission may have negative effects on the SCO, bringing more internal conflicts and lowering the level of mutual political trust and the efficiency of multilateral cooperation.

However, India and Pakistan have both attached great importance to joining the SCO. They pledged to sign all the SCO legal documents and perform in accordance with the law, and are willing to contribute to the SCO on both economic and security matters.

Noticeably, expansion could also bring many benefits to the SCO. The scope of the group will be expanded from China, Russia, and Central Asian countries to South Asia, covering over 60 percent of Eurasia. In addition, more opportunities will be brought to the SCO.

As India and Pakistan are both major powers in South Asia, their accession to the SCO will make the group a more important player and more appealing in regional and global affairs. With more geopolitical and geo-economic influence, the SCO will play a vital role in the process of multi-polarization. In the Tashkent summit, the SCO will demonstrate its special global influence again to the world.