German Chancellor Olaf Scholz despises the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and is “exasperated” that NATO ally Turkey is trying to join.
“This is not an organization that makes an important contribution to the goal of promoting good global coexistence,” Scholz told the media after meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (September 21, 2022).
He added, “So I’m annoyed at this (Turkey’s move). But in the end it’s important that we come to a consensus to make sure that the Russia-Ukraine war doesn’t work out.”
Erdogan, who attended the China-Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit last week as the head of a “dialogue partner”, said Turkey would apply to formally join the organization.
Turkey is a member of NATO dominated by the United States and Western countries, but the leaders of China and Russia have made it clear that they want the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to be an important force against the Western world.
Last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan’s historic city of Samarkand on his first foreign trip in nearly three years, during which he sought to push for a “global security initiative” aimed at countering the West. “.
SCO observer Iran announced at the end of the summit that it had formally signed an agreement to join the organization and called on the organization’s member states to help Iran circumvent Western sanctions.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 and its founding members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, but the agenda is largely controlled by China and Russia. In 2017, the organization accepted India and Pakistan as members.
With the entry of Iran, the SCO will have nine member states, with a total population of 40% of the world‘s total and 30% of the world‘s GDP. It is currently the world‘s largest regional organization.
Other countries with observer status are Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia. In addition, the SCO has six “dialogue partners”, which are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
It is believed that Belarus is close to formally signing the membership documents, and Qatar and Saudi Arabia may also join the group.
But observers say some of the Central Asian countries that co-founded the SCO and India and Pakistan do not want to position the organization as an anti-Western bloc.