Beijing and Moscow are using the SCO as a tool to eliminate U.S. influence in the Eurasian heartland - the home to half the world's population, a key front in the War on Terror and the location of key world energy supplies.
The SCO formally agreed at last year's summit to reverse America's post-9/11 military presence in Central Asia. Soon after, Uzbekistan closed Karshi Khanabad airbase to U.S. forces. Now the rulers of Extortistan - er, Kyrgyzstan - are trying to raise the price of the U.S. lease on Manas airbase rent from $2 million to $200 million a year.
The United States has asked to participate in some meaningful way in the SCO since 2005, such as observing meetings or military exercises - and been flatly denied.
We need a good public diplomacy campaign in Russia to persuade the Russian people that they are a Western nation that should stand with the West rather than accept vassal status to the Chinese. I know that Russia under Putin is not our friend and hardly a democracy; and I worry that Putin is restoring autocracy to Russia, but if enough Russians start to worry about China, perhaps Moscow will have to heed the public's worries and end their fantasy of using China as a weapon against America.
Do the Russians really believe that they can leverage us out of the area using China and then just shoulder China aside if that is accomplished?
When the Russians are hard pressed to defend their Far East, we need to remind the Russian people that there are far worse things than having American influence in their neighborhood.
