Friday, October 28, 2005

SCO: NATO of the East?

Russia and China could take a step closer to forming a Eurasian military confederacy to rival NATO at a Moscow meeting of the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Wednesday, experts say.

The group, which started in 2001 with limited goals of promoting cooperation in former Soviet Central Asia, has evolved rapidly toward a regional security bloc and could soon induct new members such as India, Pakistan, and Iran.

One initiative that core members Russia and China agree on, experts say, is to squeeze US influence - which peaked after 9/11 - out of the SCO's neighborhood. "Four years ago, when the SCO was formed, official Washington pooh-poohed it and declared it was no cause for concern," says Ariel Cohen, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "Now they're proven wrong."

Read more here.

Heritage Foundation...ugh.

Anyways, the unofficial slogan of NATO was 'Keep the Russians out, Germans down, and Americans in.' What will it be for SCO then?

The Americans out...that part seems to be set in stone. Who is down and who is in then?


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