From June 8 to 9, heads of state in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will gather in Qingdao to participate in the organization’s summit. This time the meeting will be in Qingdao —previous meetings in China were held in Beijing and Shanghai. The SCO was founded in 2001 through a coalition of China, Russia and Central Asian countries.

After nearly two decades, the organization now consists of eight full members (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, India and Pakistan) and four observers (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia). Six dialogue partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey) have a permanent secretariat in Beijing.

The SCO is a joint organization of equal and diverse sovereign states, but China has been the driving force in its evolution, making the Qingdao summit an important moment to reflect on the organization’s course, achievements and challenges. It will take place within the broader context of the Belt and Road Initiative as part of the SCO, which was announced after the last summit in Kazakhstan.

Last year, India and Pakistan were formally admitted into the ranks of the SCO in Astana, Kazakhstan. With these new members, total population of the SCO countries will be almost 3.5 billion. This accounts for nearly half of the world, and combined GDP is estimated to be more than 25 percent of the global total.

Moreover, this meeting is of great importance to both new members. The initial objective of SCO was security, but cooperation has now expanded to the economic field. The participation of these two South Asian countries will encourage even more cooperation in natural resource and infrastructure development, and boost trade and investment.

Pakistan has looked forward to becoming a full member of the SCO since the Pervez Musharraf era. It has been an observer member since 2002, when it was given this status along with India and Iran.

Peace in the region, especially in Afghanistan, is of great importance. In this regard Pakistan, China and Russia are already holding talks on finding ways to bring peace to Afghanistan. Being part of SCO, Pakistan should push to prioritize this issue, because peace in Afghanistan is the key to development in the region. Pakistan would collaborate with other member states to counter instability in the region. This is in everyone’s best interest.

Pakistan continues to seek out trade routes to central Asian states. Pakistan has many bilateral agreements with central Asian states, but SCO membership will add more opportunities to further relations and extend trade agreements to other regional countries. While Pakistan is also a member of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation program, it has not made use of this membership to the fullest. Now Pakistan can use both CPEC and CAREC to make a Gwadar international sea trade hub under the CPEC.

In conclusion, SCO provides all member states an opportunity to work together and increase bilateral and multilateral trade, as well as defense relations for the development of the region. If SCO continues its success, it can change the lives of 45 percent of the world’s population, a great achievement in the planet’s development.

The author is a master’s degree student at the Communication University of China in Beijing.