The 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States will be held on Thursday in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

This meeting will be the first in-person meeting of the prime ministers of the SCO member states following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and also the first official meeting of the SCO since Iran became a full member of the group. 

Amid an increasingly complex international landscape, the prime ministers are expect to have in-depth discussions on implementing the consensus reached at the SCO summit in July, promoting the organization's development strategy and formulating practical measures for cooperation in areas such as security, the economy and trade, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges.

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Since its inception in Shanghai in 2001, the SCO has expanded from a regional organization with six members into the world's largest and most populous regional institution, with nine full members, namely, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan and Iran, three observer countries and 14 dialogue partners.

What lies behind SCO's expansion?

Iran officially became the ninth member of the organization in July while Belarus is going through the procedures for joining the SCO.

The United Arab Emirates reportedly wants to join the SCO as a member. Syria, Iraq, Israel, Bangladesh and Vietnam also hope to join as dialogue partners or observers.

According to Deng Hao, secretary general of the China Center for SCO Studies, what lies behind the SCO's expansion is a recognition of the Shanghai Spirit. "More and more countries are realizing that the Shanghai Spirit provides them with new paths, new choices and new hopes for solving the current global dilemma and getting out of the current development predicament."

Su Xiaohui, a researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, noted that in the past decade the SCO has been at the forefront of the times, upholding the concept of building an SCO community with a shared future and carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit, which champions mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development.

Su added that the SCO's growth allows it to focus on more topics, play more roles and further increase its influence.

An important feature of the SCO is equality, which means every member has one vote and the right of veto, Ding Xiaoxing, director of the Institute of Eurasian Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said when analyzing why the SCO's friends circle is expanding.

The SCO is committed to consensus-based decision-making, which is completely different from some organizations that are manipulated by some big powers, Ding noted.

He also stressed that the SCO pursues the principle of no alliance and doesn't target other regions or organizations, which he said is different from some organizations inherited from the Cold War period whose aim is to find rivals and enemies.

Ding added the SCO aims to promote development by cooperation and seek security through cooperation. "That's why more and more countries want to establish ties with the SCO."

(Cover: An "I Love SCO" sign at the Secretariat of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Beijing, China, July 4, 2023. /CFP)