SOME RESULTS OF THE VI SCO SUMMIT IN BISHKEK Chinese President Hu Jintao's mid-August tour of Central Asia, which culminated in his participation in the sixth meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), demonstrated a new vector of China's policy in this region, as well as in relation to the SCO. It seems that Beijing intends to rely on Central Asia as a key link in the system of ensuring China's energy security, using the SCO as an effective mechanism for maintaining stability in the region. A SUMMIT THAT MIGHT NOT HAVE HAPPENED According to the decisions of the Fifth Anniversary SCO Summit held in Shanghai in June 2006, the next summit was to be held in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. But soon enough, many Central Asian news agencies began to report that the Bishkek summit was in danger of being disrupted due to the large financial difficulties experienced by the Kyrgyz leadership. SCO members even discussed the possibility of moving the sixth summit to another country of the Shanghai Six1. However, these concerns were not confirmed, and in the end a representative regional forum was held in Bishkek. However, shortly before the start of the summit, Kyrgyz President K. Bakiyev said that a significant part of the funds for holding such a representative event were allocated not from the Kyrgyz budget,but were provided free of charge to the PRC. 2 So, it was Chinese workers who participated in the hasty reconstruction of the Ala-Archa state residence. In addition, Beijing provided the Kyrgyz leadership with garbage trucks worth $1.3 million, as well as 300 buses and 30 cars - on the day of the summit, they were used to transport foreign delegations. Thus, the Chinese leadership largely financed the SCO Bishkek summit from its own funds, which indicates the special importance that Beijing attached to this forum. Moreover, a few days before the start of the SCO summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao himself arrived in Bishke ... Read more