Hedging as Sovereignty-Driven Foreign Policy Practice: The Case of Mongolia and Singapore

In 2018 Pakistan as well as India participated for the first time as a full scale member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that held at Qingdao city of China on June 9-10. Obviously, that provided a brilliant opportunity to show willingness and readiness to contribute to the effectiveness of the SCO. Pakistan’s inclusion into the organization has opened a timely opportunity to bid for regional peace and economic prosperity for its nation. There are multiple arrangements which help Pakistan to come in the streamline as well as allow the Muslim state to support ongoing priority interests of the organization. Due to Pakistan’s membership many changes are expected in the domestic legislation and international commitments generated out of organizational common interest. Moreover, it will have great impact (but positive) on Islamabad’s traditional behavior towards regional and international politics particularly on the front of its foreign policy. This article makes the point that among many opportunities that Pakistan’s inclusion into SCO brings, there are few challenges for the country as well. For example, inclusion of Pakistan in the SCO is not an isolated decision; India was also given the full membership to join the organization as a permanent member. Traditionally, both Pakistan and India have zero tolerance for each other when it comes to their national security dynamics. Other than United Nations and SAARC, SCO is the third organization where both countries will be sitting together, though UN is quite a different one. Likewise, SAARC, if both the countries maintain the same status-quo of bashing each other, the very purpose of SCO will go in vain. Also, this article proposes that Pakistan shall not be allowed to label itself as a negative factor in the SCO. Therefore, this research paper has shed light on Pakistan’s previous inability to benefit from regional organizations while suggesting a way forward for her engagement with the SCO. Believing on the great potential of Pakistan and SCO, this paper has adopted deductive methodology with that of ‘economics defines politics’ as a conceptual framework.

Asian Perspective 38 (2014), 493-495 Introduction to the Special Issue Nadine Godehardt and Nicola Nymalm After President Barack Obama's announcement in June 2011 of the large-scale withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2014, discussions on the overall impact of the security situation in Afghanistan and the consequences for the wider and immediate regional neighborhood have, to different extents, been a constant topic on the political agenda of the countries most affected. The greatest impact has been on foreign policy discourses in Central, West, and East Asia. After Obama’s announcement, Afghanistan was no longer regarded as a regional problem for the United States and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). That country’s future security now forced many countries in Asia to define their position on Afghanistan. The articles in this special issue focus on the impact of post2014 Afghanistan on Asian regional security in terms of possible scenarios as envisioned by crucial regional actors. The special issue builds on a panel, “Afghanistan and Regional Security,” that convened at the international workshop “Regional Order and Regionalism in Asia” held in March 2013 in Beijing.1 Nadine Godehardt and David Shim look at Northeast Asia, in particular South Korea and China. They argue that for these two countries, Afghanistan amounts to a kind of geopolitical imagery within their national security discourse. Consequently, the debates in China and South Korea on the US withdrawal and the post-2014 Afghanistan situation tell us more about Chinese and Korean foreign-policy practices than about the situation in Afghanistan itself. Gao Fei and Xiao Yu, writing from a genuinely Chinese per­ spective, explore the potential role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in post-2014 Afghanistan. After the announcement of the US drawback from Afghanistan, many experts saw the SCO as a guarantor for regional security and sta­ bility. Gao and Xiao argue that the strategic interests of important member states of the SCO are not only intertwined in Afghanistan 493 494 Introduction to the Special Issue but also are congruent with the interests of Afghanistan. Thus, Gao and Xiao claim, the role of the SCO would lie in regionaliz­ ing the situation in Afghanistan as a policy issue as well as actu­ ally enabling Afghanistan’s integration into a regional framework of converging security agendas. Moreover, China sees the SCO as a mechanism to fulfill its regional interests connected to, but also beyond, Afghanistan. Henner Fiirtig focuses on Afghanistan’s role in the foreign policies of West Asian/Middle Eastern countries, in particular Iran. In his historical analysis he argues that Iran’s interests as the most important Middle Eastern neighbor ofAfghanistan are actu­ ally in line with those of the United States and the wider interna­ tional community, and that Iran’s policies since 1979 have been aimed at a stable, politically moderate situation in Afghanistan. This would also be the case in every possible scenario after 2014, as Iran is also the Middle Eastern country most affected by the withdrawal of the ISAF. Finally, Sandra Destradi addresses the South Asian dimension of the conflict and analyzes India’s foreign and security policy as a regional power. She characterizes India’s approach as rather hesitant for several reasons that are rooted in domestic issues (national threat assessments) as well as at international and regional levels (first and foremost, dealing with Pakistan and China). Her article makes clear that the debates on Afghanistan and the security situation reveal more about India than about Afghanistan and its future. Thus, the decadelong emphasis in India’s foreign policy on the principle of nonintervention accounts for a very restrained attitude when it comes to questions of secu­ rity governance in Afghanistan. What is apparent from the different national perspectives explored in the articles that follow is that although regional actors are directly impacted by the present and post-2014 evolu­ tion of Afghanistan, all of them are reluctant to deal with Afghanistan directly. On the one hand, this is due to the transna­ tional and transregional challenges posed by a possibly deterio­ rating security situation in the country, which makes it difficult to determine and address root causes of the problem. On the...

Introduction. The ongoing transformation of the global order has significantly altered the security landscape in the South Caucasus and wider — Eurasia, as evidenced by the 2020 Artsakh War and the 2022 Ukraine conflict. Goals. The paper examines how these shifts impact the foreign and security policy planning of small states, with Armenia as a case study. It analyzes the evolving geopolitical environment in the region, focusing on the strategic interests of key actors — Russia, Turkey, the US, and the EU — and their implications for Armenia. The main novelty of the article is some specific emphasis on the fact of geopolitical importance of the transforming Middle East for the South Caucasus and Armenia, in particular. Materials and methods. Involving strategic documents, official statements, discourse analysis, and expert interviews, the study evaluates Armenia’s multi-vector foreign policy since its independence (1991) and explores its capacity for strategic maneuvering or geopolitical realignment amid systemic changes. The paper applies neorealist theory, particularly the black box concept, to assess Armenia’s adaptation strategies, including its efforts to position itself as a regional connectivity hub between East-West and North-South transport corridors. Methodologically, the research employs discourse analysis, scenario modeling, and trade/economic indicators, as well as the expert interviews. Results. The article examines the emerging geopolitical landscape of the region after the Artsakh War and the Ukrainian crisis. The analysis of key players (Russia, Turkey, USA, EU) and their interests identifies the main factors of change, which in turn largely determine Armenia’s foreign policy course. The study focuses on strategic documents, official statements, discourse analysis, and expert interviews to determine Armenia’s strategic priorities. The concept of a multi-vector foreign policy that Armenia has pursued since gaining independence in 1991 is also considered. Based on theoretical approaches to the study of foreign policy planning of small states, the work assesses the possibilities for strategic maneuver or ‘geopolitical choice’ in the changing world order. The article refers to the neorealist theory of the ‘black box’, arguing that in the conditions of the new reality, Armenia seeks to adapt and ensure its own security, and position itself as a connecting node between the East-West and North-South transport corridors.

The foreign policy concepts and documents adopted by the government are important for understanding the foreign policy of Georgia and especially the regional policy. Georgia and its foreign policy are among the priorities of the study of RA foreign policy, taking into account the high-level Armenian-Georgian relations, the transit importance of Georgia, the existence of a large Armenian community living in Georgia, as well as mutual interests in bilateral relations. In the article, we analyze the concepts of Georgia's foreign policy and the documents adopted by the government, their priorities and the changes that took place after geopolitical developments. While writing the scientific work, we used the systematic methods of historical-comparative, event and content analysis. In the course of our scientific work, we have set ourselves the following goals: Study the concepts of Georgia's foreign policy, the documents adopted by the government, conceptual changes that took place after geopolitical developments, and also the relevance of concepts some foreign policy documents. Achievements: Georgia's foreign policy concepts have undergone many changes after geopolitical developments, and do not fully express the reality that exists in the foreign policy adopted by Georgia.

Having celebrated its tenth anniversary in 201 1, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) can be said to have risen rapidly to a position of prominence in the world of regional organizations. Part of the reason for this is found in the successful political marketing of the organization, a process which has seen the member states openly promote their ambition to develop a strong Asian bloc based on both wider and deeper cooperation. As was made clear by the 2001 Declaration on the Establishment of the SCO, this ambition includes the development within the organization of a culture of cooperation on the most important international and regional problems. lA high level of agreement on aims and modalities among the members of the group - a precondition for close foreign policy cooperation - will indicate that they may more readily form a united policy front and thus find it easier to have an impact on their surrounding environment. Conversely, a low level of agreement will indicate that they will find it relatively difficult to stand together shoulder-to-shoulder and to achieve the ambitions outlined in the Declaration.Assessing SCO CohesionWhat follows is an assessment of the actual level of foreign policy cohesion within the membership circle. This includes most importantly the six current full members: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (the founders in 1996 of the Shanghai Five, the predecessor of the SCO), and Uzbekistan, which joined the SCO at the founding meeting in 200 1.2 To this group I add the original four observer states - Mongolia (which joined in 2004) as well as India, Iran, and Pakistan (all of which joined in 2005) - as these are the most likely candidates for future full membership.3I measure the level of foreign policy cohesion within the SCO by analyzing the voting records of the ten member and observer states in the United Nations General Assembly. The voting record of each state is seen as a proxy for its foreign policy behavior. These types of studies date back to the 1950s, making this a well-tried and oft-used methodology which can help provide us with quantifiable information as we speculate about the possible changes in the foreign policy of a single state or in the relationship between two or more states.4The ToolboxThe data set used in this analysis is the voting records of the SCO member and observer states, all of which are freely available on the United Nations website.5 In order to present a fuller picture of the development of foreign policy in these respective states I expand the temporal basis by using data from General Assembly Sessions 47 through 65, beginning in September 1992 and ending in July 2011. This means that I include data reaching back before the establishment of the SCO and even the Shanghai Five. Within this time span, I extracted data from every second session, giving me data from a total of ten different sessions.The data collection methodology was based on three basic principles.6 First, I only used votes on resolutions passed (thereby excluding resolutions that were rejected as well as parts of resolutions). Second, from this data set I included only roll call (recorded) votes. These two principles combined result in a pool of more than 700 recorded votes. These votes form the basis for the following analysis. The third and final principle is to treat absenteeism as abstention. On each of the more than 700 votes, the SCO member or observer states had the choice of voting Yes or No, or abstaining. A fourth option, however, is to simply choose to be absent - that is, not take part in the voting altogether.Faced with the challenge of absenteeism, some researchers simply throw out all cases with less than full participation by all the objects of analysis.7 However, as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan all had high levels of absenteeism in several sessions, this clearly would not work in this study. …

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation (INGO) that was established on the edifice laid by Shanghai Five. That was established in 1996. The SCO Charter was signed on 7 July 2002 in and entered into force on 19 September 2003. The SCO focuses on cooperation with international and regional organizations. The main objectives of the SCO is to strengthen relations and promote cooperation among member states SCO initial membership of six states has increased to eight permanent members. India and Pakistan have joined SCO 2017. With Iran and Belarus joining soon, ten states will enjoy the status of permanent members of SCO. Four countries have observer status and many countries from the Middle East and West Asia have been granted the Dialogue Partners’ status which displays their confidence in multifaceted cooperative agenda of the SCO. The 22nd SCO Summit was held at Samarkand on 15-16 September 2022. This year’s summit attracted enormous attention from the regional and international media for obvious reasons, including: the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and expected meetings of Heads of States with Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Putin. The contemporary world is facing multiple challenges and threats, while waiting to see more equitable distribution of resources that would help them to reduce and alleviate prevailing poverty. During the 22nd Summit Meeting, Heads of State of the SCO objectively discussed various issues faced by the world and their countries and released a number of statements and documents on safeguarding global food security, international energy security, addressing climate change, and maintaining a secure, stable and diversified supply chain. The SCO has also paid due attention to address regional challenges such as security, connectivity, and economic development. The ‘Declaration’ released after the 22nd Summit Conference announces various new and innovative approaches to ensuring regional stability, sustainable economic development, strengthening of transport and communication links, and determination to build a more representative, democratic and just multipolar international world order. It must be kept in SCO is not a military alliance, rather it is a cooperative organization based on mutual respects and trust, mutually beneficial win-win relations, equality of nations and states, and respect for the diversity of civilizations. The SCO maintains very good working relations with the United Nations and other regional and international organizations. During the 22nd Summit Meeting, President Xi delivered an important statement entitled “Ride on the Trend of the Times and Enhance Solidarity and Cooperation to Embrace a Better Future”. He emphasized that “the SCO should keep itself well-positioned in the face of changing international dynamics, in order to a closer SCO community with a shared future.

There is no doubt that Nigeria’s foreign policy is indeed outdated. This is evidenced in the fact that we now live in different times. Though Nigeria’s role in Africa still remains significant, however, the time “Africa” was made the centre piece of Nigeria’s foreign policy, was a time when many countries in the continent were struggling to throw off the yolk of colonialism. And the adoption of such a policy was to stand in solidarity with those nations that were struggling to achieve or gain independence. And today, no single country in the continent is under foreign rule or direct control, and the times now call for a review of Nigeria’s foreign policy to reflect the nations current circumstances and realities among the committee of states across the globe. And there is no time than under the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. The Buhari administration must look critically and make an assessment of how and which way to direct Nigeria’s foreign policy. The responsibility appears to be binding on President Buhari’s administration having been neglected or not given the required attention by many previous regimes and administrations. The confidence of Nigerians in President Buhari’s vision, promises and commitment to change and general progress/ greatness of Nigeria seems to justify such expectations in the area of foreign relations and policy. There is need for Nigeria to be more involved in world affairs and to seek observer status in certain supranational institutions including the E.U, NATO and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) in this era of globalisation, and the accompanying system of interdependence. This paper tries to provide a guide with regards to the review of the foreign policy of Nigeria by President Buhari to reflect the realities and challenges of the times in which we are living. The paper argues that Nigeria must be a global player despite being a regional power in consideration of its pottentials and position in the scheme of things, drawing lessons based on Realist theories in international affairs and conduct as well as the experiences of certain states like Japan as models for foreign policy development.

Introduction "The Shanghai process" has started since 1960s due to the essentially changing international relations, the need to solve the issue about the Soviet and Chinese boundary and the allocation of spheres of influence in the Central Asian region. Many years' cooperation in this area resulted in the foundation in 2001 of the regional international organization with six permanent members--Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Tadzhikistan and Uzbekistan. This agreement was called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Now its importance and sphere of influence in the Asian region is expanding. It resulted in India and Pakistan entering the organization in the middle of 2015. In spite of the fact that this grouping is considered mainly as a political union, nevertheless, each of its members pursues its own trading and economic interests from cooperating within the SCO. Russia and China try not to allow the USA to enter the region under consideration in order to preserve the Central Asia within their influence, both political and economic. In their turn, Central Asian republics that considerably lag behind their partners are interested in obtaining trading and economic privileges, financial and technological assistance. However, all together the SCO countries make up an economically colossal grouping that has a lot of promising investment and innovational areas of developing (Maytdinova, 2013). Method and Methodology Works of foreign and national researchers on issues related to the international economic integration, specialists on integration of Russia, Central Asian countries and China, and documents and decisions taken in the SCO made up the theoretical and methodological basis of the research. The methodological basis of the research is the dialectic method, comparative and functional, and system approaches to considering integration processes in the SCO, country analysis of the trading and economic cooperation of the organization countries. When writing the work, the information was collected and processed statistically and economically. The tasks set in the work were solved based on applying general research methods within the structural and functional, and comparative analysis, as well as analysis and synthesis, analogous and comparison, and method of economic and statistical groupings. Results Russia and China are the countries that have considerable reserves of almost all known mineral resources. Large reserves of fuel and energy raw materials are concentrated in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A lot of labor resources are found in all SCO countries excluding Russia. China has a developed chain of supplies in many areas of the processing industry. Russia is characterized by a strategically advantageous geopolitical location. Subject to all above advantages in this region, there are a number of factors that restrain the development within the SCO. One of them is an informal sector of economy that is considerable by its volumes and continues growing (Loayza, 2011; Medvedeva, Komarova and Kozenko, 2015). The inter-country analysis of the share of informal sector of economy from the GDP shows that it has been developed most of all in China, then in Tadzhikistan. In Kazakhstan, Kirgizia and Uzbekistan informal economy is almost on the same level, within 42%. In Russia the situation is better as compared to other SCO members. However, the 30% value of this indicator is extremely high according to the global community (Zhusupova, 2013). In its turn a wide spread of informal economy causes the countrywide use of informal labor practices and contributes to informal employment in the region (Davydenko, 2005). The lowest number of informally employed citizens is in Kazakhstan (32.8%), and (in the ascending order of this indicator) in Uzbekistan (40%), Russia (42%), and Tadzhikistan (47.5%). In China (67%) and Kirgizia (76%) the share of informally employed people considerably surpasses half of all economically active population of the country (Sayakvaev and Mokrousova, 2014; Hushkadamova, 2013; Faizova, Kozhevnikova, Kashipova, Zinurova and Egorova, 2015). …

SCO is one of the most important organizations in the field of trade and investment relations with participating of two great powers of China and Russia. The members have had different cooperation in different levels with important objectives in different fields as economy and security including counter-terrorism and they have taken steps to solve the problem. The members of this organization have had different approaches regarding giving membership to the countries and have always been impressed by the organization’s Terms and Conditions. Iran, a member of the supervisory agency, due to the opposition from China and Russia has not been a full member so far. However, the approach of the two countries after Iran nuclear deal has changed and it looks that unlike the past now the two countries’ tendency is to expand cooperation with Iran in the SCO. One of the main reasons for this welcome, according to the author, is fighting against terrorism. The question is that how Iran’s membership in Shanghai Cooperation Organization helps to achieve the goals of China and Russia in the war against terrorism (ISIS) after nuclear deal. Finally, through data collection and analyzing them it became clear that the Iran nuclear deal and lifting sanctions in addition to removing legal obstacles to Iranian membership in Shanghai could expand Iran’s role in the region and the fight against terrorism (ISIS). China, Russia and Iran have a lot of common points in the fight against terrorism that Iran’s membership in the organization as a strategic country can contribute to the deepening of relations between the countries to combat terrorism.

Background. The eastern direction of Russia's foreign policy has always been present in the regional priorities, but it has become especially relevant after the changes that have taken place in the international arena in recent years, which was primarily due to the new political realities and significantly increased sanctions pressure on Russia from Western countries. This necessitated a shift of economic and political emphasis to the eastern direction. Today Russia and China have entered a new format of strategic interaction. The aim of the article is to study the evolution of conceptual provisions of Russia's foreign policy towards China and sociological analysis of the attitude of Russians and young people to building modern Russian-Chinese relations. Materials and methods. The conceptual parameters of the Chinese vector in the foreign policy course of the Russian Federation are considered on the basis of the analysis of the Concepts of Russia's foreign policy. The study of the perceptions of Russians and modern student youth of Russian-Chinese relations is carried out based on the materials of the author's qualitative and quantitative research in 2024–2025 and the results of All-Russian polls of Russian Public Opinion Research Centre 2023–2024. Results. Based on the study of the Concepts of Russia's foreign policy, the evolution of its eastern vector is presented. The materials of author's and all-Russian researches allowed to reveal the attitude of Russians, including young people, to the construction of Russian-Chinese relations at the present stage. Conclusions. The Eastern vector in Russia's foreign policy is dominant today. Russia views China as an equal strategic partner. For China, Russia is one of the favorable partners on the continent. Russians. Among Russians and in the youth environment there is support for the eastern direction of Russia's foreign policy, and the forced nature of this “U-turn” is emphasized. Young people consider China as a partner, to a greater extent, in the economic sphere, and contemporary Russian-Chinese relations are characterized as friendly. At the same time, today's young people are also concerned about the possible future hegemony of China and the economic threats that may arise in Russian-Chinese relations.

As a small and new EU member state Croatia had little to contribute to Brexit, which occurred just a few years after the country’s accession to the EU. Stemming from its size, its pre-existing relations with the UK and its drive to learn to operate within the EU, Croatia is no outlier in the literature on small states’ foreign policy. This paper analyses the behaviour of Croatia during Brexit and adds to the literature on small states. First, it analyses whether and to what extent Croatia opted for one or more of the following strategies: seeking shelter, hiding or hedging during the Brexit negotiations. Second, it examines the logics underpinning the aforementioned strategies (logic of consequences vs. logic of appropriateness). Third, it scrutinizes Brexit’s impact on the Europeanisation of Croatia’s foreign and defence policies and possible advancement or undermining of this Europeanisation process. We focus on both policy-uploading and policy-downloading dimensions of Europeanisation, thus contributing to the literature on Europeanisation. Our research is based on existing literature, second-hand sources such as official documents and statements, and the primary data collected through semi-structured interviews with eight persons who either shaped the Croatian foreign and defence policies or were well-informed about them.

This research explores Pakistan’s experiences as the SCO member from 2011 to 2024 as well as the purpose and dynamics of its membership, its calculating interests, an impact on the organization’s decision-making processes, and the compatibility of its SCO activity with its general foreign-policy goals. Qualitative research methodology was adopted by using secondary data. This work explores Pakistan’s politics of security economic cooperation and multilateralism. The research outcomes show Pakistan’s transformation from a mere watcher to a player utilizing the SCO framework for combating terrorism, stabilizing the region, and particularly for the CPEC in boosting economic cooperation and integration. Nonetheless, Pakistan was effective in counterterrorism and connectivity, and it still has a less-powerful role in compared with the Russia and China that set the SCO’s strategic narrative. Despite noting that Pakistan has fully associated itself with the goals of the SCO for instance through having a special place in the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), the study points out issues like limited decision making power, economic constraints and bottled up bilateral conflicts with India that sometimes complicate multilateral interactions within the SCO forum. However, Pakistan’s membership in SCO is evidence of changing its foreign policy course in a more multipolar direction, deepening its activity in South and Central Asia, and explaining the position of regional associations in the creation of governance and addressing new threats.

This research explores Pakistan’s experiences as the SCO member from 2011 to 2024 as well as the purpose and dynamics of its membership, its calculating interests, an impact on the organization’s decision-making processes, and the compatibility of its SCO activity with its general foreign-policy goals. Qualitative research methodology was adopted by using secondary data. This work explores Pakistan’s politics of security economic cooperation and multilateralism. The research outcomes show Pakistan’s transformation from a mere watcher to a player utilizing the SCO framework for combating terrorism, stabilizing the region, and particularly for the CPEC in boosting economic cooperation and integration. Nonetheless, Pakistan was effective in counterterrorism and connectivity, and it still has a less-powerful role in compared with the Russia and China that set the SCO’s strategic narrative. Despite noting that Pakistan has fully associated itself with the goals of the SCO for instance through having a special place in the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), the study points out issues like limited decision making power, economic constraints and bottled up bilateral conflicts with India that sometimes complicate multilateral interactions within the SCO forum. However, Pakistan’s membership in SCO is evidence of changing its foreign policy course in a more multipolar direction, deepening its activity in South and Central Asia, and explaining the position of regional associations in the creation of governance and addressing new threats.

This research explores Pakistan’s experiences as the SCO member from 2011 to 2024 as well as the purpose and dynamics of its membership, its calculating interests, an impact on the organization’s decision-making processes, and the compatibility of its SCO activity with its general foreign-policy goals. Qualitative research methodology was adopted by using secondary data. This work explores Pakistan’s politics of security economic cooperation and multilateralism. The research outcomes show Pakistan’s transformation from a mere watcher to a player utilizing the SCO framework for combating terrorism, stabilizing the region, and particularly for the CPEC in boosting economic cooperation and integration. Nonetheless, Pakistan was effective in counterterrorism and connectivity, and it still has a less-powerful role in compared with the Russia and China that set the SCO’s strategic narrative. Despite noting that Pakistan has fully associated itself with the goals of the SCO for instance through having a special place in the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), the study points out issues like limited decision making power, economic constraints and bottled up bilateral conflicts with India that sometimes complicate multilateral interactions within the SCO forum. However, Pakistan’s membership in SCO is evidence of changing its foreign policy course in a more multipolar direction, deepening its activity in South and Central Asia, and explaining the position of regional associations in the creation of governance and addressing new threats.

In June 2017, Pakistan gained the permanent membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in its 16th Heads of State Summit in Astana. As its permanent member, Pakistan hopes to attain immense support to address its economic, security and social issues. By sharing a membership with two major regional powers, Russia and China, in SCO, Pakistan sees itself an elevated contributor to the regional development. Moreover, full membership of the SCO has the potential to improve the image of Pakistan in the international arena. This paper is an endeavour to look into the potential benefits of SCO membership, as well as Pakistan’s relationship with the Central Asian Republics (CARs).