SCO as a Passage to Regional Security: Future Developments and Opportunities for Pakistan

Abstract

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a pathway to promote regional security and has a strong commitment to counter security threats. The primary purpose of the organisation is to promote security, peace, and regional stability. Juxtapose SCO offers an opportunity for the member states to create direct security linkages in the region. First, the paper articulates the historical development of the SCO. Moreover, the paper evaluates SCO as a substantial pathway which is promoting the regional security effectively and how Pakistan, being a critical member state, is playing an active role in regional security. In addition, another goal is to determine how SCO member states enhance counter-terrorism cooperation at state levels as well as in the regional levels. The study shows that Pakistan supports SCO’s efforts for regional cooperation in counter-terrorism, drug trafficking and planned crimes. The paper concludes that regional security is an influential tool for further development of SCO. Finally, this paper briefly looks at the developmental programs like China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that how the changing patterns in world politics promotes regional security with special focus on Pakistan.