ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 4. Azerbaijan's involvement is crucial to implementing key transport corridors within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), analyst of the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) Yersultan Zhanseitov told Trend on the sidelines of the SCO Summit.
"Azerbaijan is one of the primary geopolitical players in the Caspian region and Eurasia as a whole. With the resolution of the Karabakh issue, very important transport corridors that have been unable to realize their potential for 30 years are being unlocked," he emphasized.
Regarding Azerbaijan's participation in the SCO Plus format, Zhansеitov mentioned that the organization itself is expanding its horizons, originally founded as a cooperation among five post-Soviet countries.
"Today, we see that the SCO family is growing, with an additional member, Belarus, and the prospective inclusion of Azerbaijan into the SCO family is a mutually beneficial scenario for all, because without Azerbaijan, the most crucial transport corridors cannot be realized today. These include the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor).
We see significant interest, for example, from the Chinese side in expanding this corridor. During President Xi Jinping's current visit to Kazakhstan, important agreements were reached regarding the development of this route during his meeting with our President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
It's logical that, without Azerbaijan, this plan cannot be implemented in any way. Therefore, involving Azerbaijan in all such strategic processes, including within the SCO framework, is a very logical and advantageous option for everyone," the analyst pointed out.
Furthermore, Zhansеitov stated that Azerbaijan is currently a top priority for exporting Kazakhstani energy resources, as the country diversifies its supplies to the external market.
"Renewable energy is a very relevant issue because our countries are strong at exporting energy resources, but a new technological era is upon us. Now all countries in the world are transitioning to alternative energy. Cooperation with China, as the largest producer of new alternative energy sources, is crucial here.
Thus, such an interconnected chain of states is forming on the Eurasian continent, which, despite its primary export orientation towards energy resources, simultaneously builds such a 'green' energy architecture," he explained.
The analyst said that in the context of relations between Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries, the role of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) is important.
"This is because we share common historical roots, we are all brothers in one Turkic family. It's very important to work in this ideological direction to create self-awareness among the peoples of our countries about belonging to a single region and large family, as in today's geopolitical realities in the world, we are the closest allies to each other. We have great potential to create a cohesive and monolithic entity as a union of fraternal states," he added.
To note, the SCO Summit is taking place in Astana, under the helm of Kazakhstan.
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