POLITICS-CHINA: Ahmadinejad Invited to Shanghai Meet

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Jun 13 2006 (IPS) - China is taking a step further in asserting itself as a major player in Central Asia and the Middle East by inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the summit meeting of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), this week.

The group, started in 2001 with the modest goals of promoting economic cooperation in former Soviet Central Asia, has evolved rapidly into a regional security bloc and is considering future enlargement to include new country members such as India, Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran.

The invitation for Ahmadinejad to attend the summit, Thursday, and for a one-on-one meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on the sidelines, comes at a time when Iran faces international scrutiny for its alleged efforts to acquire a nuclear arsenal, and after months of protracted negotiations between Tehran and Western powers.

All along China has resisted U.S.-led efforts for a tough United Nations action on Iran’s clandestine nuclear programme. China holds a U.N. Security Council veto and its voice is crucial in achieving a consensus among the world powers on how to engage Iran over its uranium enrichment.

Discord between Beijing and the West on dealings with Tehran contributed to Washington’s decision, last month, to reverse decades of policy and agree to multi-nation talks with Iran – if Tehran accepts a package of incentives, stops enrichment during the talks and places a long-term freeze on such activities.

But China’s willingness to extend an invitation to Iran to attend the meeting of the SCO might encourage Tehran’s defiance in future nuclear negotiations. Because one core objective SCO members and Iran share, experts say, is the desire to reduce U.S. influence in Central Asia.

“SCO is no longer dismissed in the West as a talk shop,” says a Western diplomat based in Beijing. “They have been around for a while and one can say with some certainty that their long-term intentions would create more tension with the United States (in the region).”

So much in fact that Beijing has had to deflect allegations that it is looking to form a ‘NATO of the East’.

“This is totally groundless,” the Chinese head of the SCO, Zhang Deguang, said at a news conference last week. “The SCO is not an eastern version of NATO. It has never sought confrontation with any parties and its aims have nothing at all to do with becoming a military bloc.”

The meeting, taking place in Shanghai, would see together the presidents of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, as well as the leaders of three observer countries, namely Mongolia, Iran and Pakistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will attend the SCO meeting as a guest and India has sent its influential oil minister, Murli Deora.

Beijing has also dismissed charges that the SCO forum would serve as a vehicle for promoting Iran’s position on its nuclear programme. Iran says its programme has the sole purpose of generating electricity.

“Given the regional nature of the SCO, I do not think the Iranian problem will be a priority,” Deguang told the media.

An ostensible alignment with Iran at the upcoming SCO forum would help boost Beijing’s clout in a region traditionally outside its influence and strengthen its hands during talks between Iran and the Western powers.

But there is little doubt that the meeting would also serve the purpose of strengthening Iran’s economic, diplomatic and even security relations with China and Russia – the SCO’s founders. Both countries have significant economic interests in Iran.

Beijing, in particular, sees the Iran card as vital to its energy security. Already the world’s second largest oil importer, China gets 13 percent of its oil imports from Iran and wants to step up imports of Iran’s natural gas too. In the first four months of this year, Beijing’s purchases of Iranian oil rose by 25 percent over with the same period in 2005.

By welcoming Ahmadinejad at this particular time, China is sending signals on its priorities in Central Asia and the region beyond. Its strategy to source large quantities of oil from central Asian neighbours in the face of international criticism was evident last year when Beijing concluded a high profile oil deal with Uzbekistan only weeks after a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters in that country.

In a marked contrast with the pursuit of democratic agenda of the United States in the region, the SCO has already declared it would refrain from involvement in security matters within common borders.

“By promoting an Asian development model of its own, and different from the U.S., China is becoming a more and more attractive leader to other countries,” says Han Feng, a researcher with the Asia-Pacific Studies Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “It is a development that worries the U.S.”

Since Iran was accepted as an SCO observer last year, U.S. officials have sought explanation from both Beijing and Moscow as to why a country they have listed as one of the world’s leading supporters of terrorism is being considered a potential member of a regional alliance fighting terrorism.

But both Beijing and Moscow have brushed aside Washington’s objections. “We would not have invited them if we believed they sponsored terrorism,” Deguang said in defence.