International

Shanghai group gains legal status

By Vladimir Radyuhin

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin (centre), speaks with Tajikistan's President, Emomali Rakhmonov, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday. The Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, is at left. — AP

MOSCOW JUNE 7. The leaders of Russia, China and four Central Asian nations have formally established a new regional grouping sprawling from the Baltic Sea in the West to the Pacific Ocean in the East.

At a summit in St. Petersburg on Friday, the leaders of the six member-States, which also include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, signed the Charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, making it a full-fledged international body.

The Charter, subject to ratification by the respective Parliaments, said the new organisation was not a bloc or a closed alliance, nor was it directed against any country or groups of countries. The six founding members also signed a political declaration, which formulated three priority tasks for the new grouping — regional security, economic and humanitarian cooperation. Fight against terrorism and separatism was described in the declaration as a priority task for the new organisation.

The member-States "resolutely reject all acts, methods and practice of terrorism.'' ``The struggle against terrorism must be conducted on the basis of norms and principles of international law, it must not be identified with the struggle against any religion, countries or nationalities, it must be free from bias and `double standards,'' said the declaration.

The participants signed an agreement to set up a regional anti-terrorist structure.

Even as the summit was under way, the Indian Ambassador to Russia, Krishnan Raghunath, reiterated India's willingness to join the new organisation. He told a press conference in Moscow that India shared the objectives of the SCO and its membership would help make the organisation more efficient.

At a post-summit press conference, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said Russia "positively viewed'' India's accession to the SCO. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Iran have also showed interest in joining the Shanghai group.

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