Turkey to chair 2017 Energy Club of Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Turkey will chair the Energy Club of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2017. With this, it became the first non full member country to be the chairman of a club in the organisation.

Ankara's proposal for non-SCO member countries to host the term presidency of the Energy Club was accepted in a meeting on 22 November 2016.

The nomination came after officials from Russia and China gave green signal to Ankara after the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed to the SCO as Turkey's alternative to the European Union.

About Energy Club of SCO

• On 30 November 2006, at The SCO: Results and Perspectives, an international conference held in Almaty, the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russia is developing plans for an SCO "Energy Club".

• The need for the club was restated by Moscow at an SCO summit in November 2007. However, other SCO members have not committed themselves to the idea.

About Shanghai Cooperation Organization

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is also known as Shanghai Pact.

• It is a Eurasian political, economic and military organisation.

• It was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of the China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. These countries, except for Uzbekistan, had been members of the Shanghai Five, which was founded in 1996. After the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the organisation was renamed by the organisation.

• India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Iran and Afghanistan are observers of the SCO. On the other hand, Belarus and Turkey is a dialogue partner.