SHANGHAI SPIRIT and INDO-PAK RIVALRY.

It was a foresighted vision of Chinese leadership to maintain a friendly relationship with its neighborhood. The said objective was impossible to achieve without establishing a sustainable platform for resolving existing border disputes earlier and to enhance cooperation for development, security and stability of region with due course of time. China shares its eastern borders with Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan upon fall of USSR and creation of Central Asian States, China was facing the conflict of undetermined borders.

On the other hand newly born states of Central Asia had border disputes among them and also with China and Russia. The situation could be worsened had the disputes been not handled with peaceful approach and the region could have gone for armed and bloody conflicts. Chinese leadership avoided the approach of use of force for resolution of these issues and adopted a peaceful approach thereby creating "Shanghai Five" in 1996 with the consent of Russia and aforesaid Central Asia states.

Shanghai Five provided an opportunity for these states to come up with the treaties of "Confidence Building Measures on Borders" and "Mutual Reduction of Military Forces on the Borders Areas". These treaties not only helped in resolution of disputes among these states but also created a confidence between the member states to cooperate further for development, trade and security. The confidence led towards the creation of an higher standard organization. In 2002, Shanghai Five was upgraded as "Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)" and Uzbekistan was also given the status of a permanent member.

SCO included more states as observer states, Dialogue Partners and Guest Attendances. On 9 th of June, 2017 Pakistan and India become the permanent member states of SCO during annual summit at Astana, Kazakhstan. The peaceful approach adopted by SCO towards conflict resolution and pursuing joint ventures for dealing with extremism, terrorism and separatism are known as "Shanghai Spirit".

With joining SCO as permanent members, Pakistan and India have brought new prospects and challenges for the organization and the region at large. Pakistan has dealt with terrorism successfully and achieved a clear victory over it. The wave of terrorism has affected not only the country but the whole region.

Pakistan can contribute in countering terrorism by facilitating member states through Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which is the sub...