Since long was the hue and cry in Pakistan to test in depth the friendship of China. COAS who in fact rules the Pakistan always objected to the idea. Surprisingly current and his predecessor Joint Chief of Staff belonged to Chinese Lobby, but Joint Chief post is since a ceremonial appointment as such no one paid any heed what hese gentlemen kept on saying. Few monts ago capture of US Spy Remond Devis, later operation Abbotabad revealed some strawtling US plans which acted as an atomic explosion for Gen Kiani of Pakistan. From that day this actual ruler of Pakistan decided no more business with USA and turned to have ties with SCO. Asif Zardari was present in recently held SCO meeting in Astana wher many strategic decsions have been taken for Eurasia landmass. The Astana summit’s call for a “neutral” Afghanistan is a major development. It now becomes the common position of Russia, China and the Central Asian states that they disfavor the establishment of any permanent US and/or NATO military presence in Afghanistan.
The SCO declaration comes at a time when the US is actively discussing a strategic partnership agreement with the government headed by President Hamid Karzai. Thus, it is a point of interest that Karzai himself was at Astana when the SCO declaration was formally approved.
Obviously, detailed discussions have been held behind the curtain between Karzai and the SCO leaders on the big questions of the post-2014 scenario in Afghanistan. Kazakh President Nurusultan Nazarbayev gave a valuable clue to SCO thought processes when he openly anticipated, “It is possible that the SCO will assume responsibility for many issues in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of coalition forces in 2014.”
The US is indeed coming across a major problem by way of the hardening of regional opinion with regard to its hidden agenda to establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2014. South Asian opinion is already weighed against any US military bases in Afghanistan. The discord lies at the core of US-Pakistan tensions. Iran has never minced words on the issue. India has quietly indicated its aversion to “new cold war” tensions appearing in the region.
Read More http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/MF18Ag01.html
Categories: Afghanistan, Asia, China, Pakistan, United States
SCO = The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). (It is not clear from the article).
yes you correctly pointed it out. It is same organisation. I thought it is now so famous that one can recognize it by name as we do UNO or NATO. May be not in Europe so for but in Asia it is famous and people know what SCO is. Once again thanks for drawing the attention.