Shanghai Security Alliance Founded
NATO Counterpart now spans most of Asia
Several countries confirmed their commitment to the nascent Shanghai Security Alliance (abbr. SSA). Several nations have signed onto the treaty, primarily headed by Russia, China, Iran and Belarus, officially founding the political power bloc.
Along with the four main brokers of the alliance, several other nations have signed onto the economic and military alliance as member (Chad, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kazakhstan) and observer (Mali, Mozambique, Niger, North Korea and Somalia) nations. The alliance is intended to work in a similar manner as NATO and the existing CSTO, and is stated to sit alongside existing CSTO commitments, rather than replace it outright. Armenian, Kyrgyzstani and Tajikistani spokespeople have declined to comment on the decision to not join the new alliance.
Militarily, it is unclear how the member states will commit to the alliance. Its’ charter’s article 7 is similar to NATO’s Article 5 and explicitly disqualifies any pre-existing conflicts from its invocation criteria, meaning that Russia lacks the authority to call in members into the Ukraine-Russia war. Local Belorussian and African sources do suggest a desire for a unified military organization.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly condemned the signing, with especially harsh words towards Cuba, calling the treaty ‘a circumvention of the American embargo’. Similarly, several EU officials called the treaty ‘worrying’, citing the alliance vast resources and manufacturing capabilities.
Head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Liu Jianchao, affirmed during an interview that the treaty will not impact China’s economical stances, calling the decision to sign into the SSA a ’long-term strategical decision, that is meant to […] increase inter-Asian cooperation and promote developmental and decolonization efforts in Africa’. In the same interview, he cited the decision to include Cuba a ’tactical decision’ and claimed that China will continue to not provide weaponry, personnel or materiel to Russia for the Ukraine-Russia War.