12 October, 2009, 17:32
Russia and China are set to seal deals worth more than five billion dollars in energy, infrastructure and telecoms. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is leading a high-powered delegation to the eastern country.
Around a hundred top Russian business leaders form the delegation, hoping to win a bigger slice of one of the world’s largest markets.
Putin will meet with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao during his visit, as well as China’s President Hu Jintao, and will take part in a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The meeting is expected to focus on the strengthening of humanitarian and economic cooperation between the SCO member states, including their cooperation in overcoming the consequences of the global financial crisis.
Heads of Government of the SCO member states are also to discuss joint projects in the transport, energy, information and telecommunication spheres.
The SCO, founded in 2001, consists of Russia, China and the ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
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Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is an intergovernmental mutual-security organisation.
Although the declaration on the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation contained a statement that it "is not an alliance directed against other states and regions and it adheres to the principle of openness", many observers believe that one of the original purposes of the SCO was to serve as a counterbalance to NATO and the United States and in particular to avoid conflicts that would allow the United States to intervene in areas bordering both Russia and China.[40][41] And although not a member state, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has used his speeches at the SCO to make verbal attacks against the United States.[42]
The United States applied for observer status in the SCO, but was rejected in 2005.[43]
At the Astana summit in July 2005, with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq foreshadowing an indefinite presence of U.S. forces in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the SCO urged the U.S. to set a timetable for withdrawing its troops from SCO member states. Shortly afterwards, Uzbekistan asked the U.S. to leave the K-2 air base,[44].
Recently the SCO has made no direct comments against the U.S. or its military presence in the region. However, several indirect statements at the past summits, including the 2007 summit in Bishkek, have been viewed as "thinly veiled swipes at Washington".[45]
