Economic Cooperation Organisation
The Soviet Union used relentless force in subjugating the countries in its zone of occupation post-World War II in making them communist in its own mould, Winston Churchill spoke about an “Iron Curtain” descending over Eastern Europe. To compound the human losses of the war, Stalinist purges wiped out almost the entire blue-collar segment of the skilled labour class, the rest fleeing to safer havens, in their place docile puppets subservient to their Soviet masters and dedicated to a centralized economy were installed. The Soviet brutality in Eastern Europe could not surpass the savagery employed by their Bolshevik predecessors in Central Asia post-World War I in attempting to stamp out Islam’s religious character from the population, turning them into adherents of Godless communism. At the southern frontiers of the USSR, the communists remained extremely sensitive to the unifying force of Islam throughout their occupation.
Alarmed at the spread of communism as an ideology and the Soviet Union’s domination of its neighbours the western countries set up their own military alliances. In Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) came into being to counter the Soviet-led alliance of Eastern European Countries (known as the Warsaw Pact). The US set up the Baghdad Pact in Asia to contain Soviet advance southwards in Asia. In South East Asia, the South East Treaty Organisation (SEATO) comprising Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines was created to deter expected incursions from the People’s Republic of China. With Iraq’s hereditary ruler overthrown in a violent coup in 1958, Iraq pulled out of the Baghdad Pact and it was renamed the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. In any case, the continuous line was broken because of India’s refusal to be a party to an anti-Soviet alliance and Burma’s socialist regime opting to remain out. Pakistan, with its two wings a thousand miles apart, joined the Baghdad Pact (and later CENTO) while the membership of the South East Treaty Organisation (SEATO) was acquired because of the proximity of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to South East Asia.
Having conquered Goa and the other Portuguese enclaves in India easily, the Indians, who normally remain allied with the Soviet faction of the socialist camp, over-estimated their own military strength and entered into a mad adventure in late 1962 against its powerful northern neighbour, the People’s Republic of China. India’s attempt to cross the Macmohan Line soon got a bloody nose. Forced into a war not of their choosing, the Chinese destroyed the total Indian military capability in the disputed regions in a short sharp engagement. Chasing the Indians a hundred or so miles in the mountains back to their bases and then unilaterally declaring a ceasefire, the Chinese pulled back to their side of the Macmohan Line after returning all captured Indian equipment, duly cleaned and polished. In a travesty of established facts, the Indians, yelling aggression, became the grateful recipient of vast quantities of arms and equipment from USA and other western countries, enough to equip four mountain divisions, while managing to remain non-aligned.
The non-communist military alliances soon realized that without an economic agreement of sorts in place among the regional groupings, it was impossible to sustain the military alliance. A sort of an economic alliance came into being in each region, with special features peculiar to that region. Europe saw the European Common Market come into being as the European Economic Community (EEC), with its Headquarters at Brussels in tandem with NATO. The Soviets, who had created the Warsaw Pact to counter NATO, also set up an economic union called the COMECON. The CENTO countries made their mutual economic cooperation operative by establishing the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) while the countries of SEATO (without Pakistan which had ceased membership because of the breakaway of its Eastern Wing made up the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In 1979, the Shahinshah of Iran lost his throne to a home-grown Islamic movement led by Imam Khomeini, the US support for the Shah caused the new regime to become virulently anti-US. Complications like the diplomatic hostages 1980-82 in Tehran further exacerbated US-Iran relations to the breaking point. The continuation of CENTO and RCD as effective organisations became impossible because of Iran’s antipathy for the US (and vice versa). CENTO did not have much meaning for Turkey (which was member of NATO also) and for post-Shah Iran, Pakistan perforce became the free world’s front-line State against Soviet expansionism (via the Soviet client state of Afghanistan) and thus the recipient of economic and military aid from 1981 onwards. Despite being considered close allies of the US, Pakistan and Turkey maintained their historical links with their neighbour, Iran. Once Iran had overcome its initial suspicion about the intentions of its two neighbours, the three countries decided to continue the objectives of the RCD but under a different name, Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), taking over the successor status of its predecessors in 1985. The ECO has been functioning as an economic entity but without the same depth of character and the objectives of the EEC and ASEAN. While certainly there have been some gains, these have been limited in scope, not making a significant impact on the overall economic threshold of any of the individual nations. The promise of economic emancipation has thus been stunted in comparison to the great gains of the EEC countries and to a lesser extent, the ASEAN countries. Bold steps that could have been taken to invigorate the economy have been emasculated by too cautious an approach. The deep economic malaise afflicting the three member countries in different ways could have been mitigated by pragmatic but imaginative moves to create a mutually open economy. At this time, the organisation pays no more than lip-service homage to the concept of a complementary economy, the essence of such an association.
In spite of this moribund status, dramatic geo-political changes have swept the former Soviet Union and created an occasion for opportunity in the newly emerging Republics, the bankruptcy of the centralized incentiveless economy being fully exposed. With the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the individual republics have been scrambling to obtain economic help from all comers on an emergency basis, initially to survive the on-going winter and then to obtain short, medium and long-term economic aid. As things stand, the EEC countries are committed to help Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states, individually as nations and as a community. With Japan also looking at the vast mineral potential of the Siberian reaches of Russia, the Central Asian States are bound to be the last recipient, if at all, of any western handouts. The economic aspirations of these people having been whetted at par with their Ukrainian and Russian Counterparts, frustration has already boiled over into civil unrest in many areas. While the oil-rich Muslim Arab states would (and should) be a natural source of sustenance, the Central Asian Republics, particularly those bordering (or in proximity to) Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, look to a natural alignment of their economic destinies with ECO.
The ECO Council of Ministers Meeting in Tehran approved the applications of Azerbaijan, Turkmenia and Uzbekistan to join the ECO in early February 1992, thus paving the way for an expanded summit of ECO Heads of State Government in Tehran in mid-February. The Summit further accepted the applications of Tajikistan while giving Kyrghistan and Kazakhistan, who sent their Deputy Prime Ministers, observer status. It is expected that with their expected journey the seven-member ECO will rise to 9 nations. A full circle has thus been reached with USSR’s disintegration. States separated by artificial barrier are falling back on historical trade affinities. With a change of government in Afghanistan imminent this year and the other States waiting to join ECO, a major trade bloc is in offing extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean West to East and from the Ocean into the virtual centre of Asia to the North. If the governments take heed of history and remove all trade barriers and tariffs, it would mean a tremendous boon for this country (and the region). After all, this is an area of 3.2 million square km inhabited by 220 million people. Political affinity will come but it should be a natural process that should follow open economic borders. Free trade between the countries of ECO will bring about rapid economic emancipation. As the “Iron Curtain” has crumbled, this is the first genuine natural union of peoples bound together by a similar religion but separated by an alien ideology. We must take a lesson from China’s pragmatic leader, Deng Xiaoping, who has kept economic emancipation as a priority ahead of political freedom, in the knowledge that the former eventually leads to the latter. Gorbachev tried the opposite with disastrous results.
Pakistan’s own geo-political position and length of ocean-front has historical connotations with the centuries-old warm water dreams of the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, who saw his South-politik as the eventual economic emancipation for Russia which has its own maritime potential ice-locked nine months of the year. The dreams of 500 years vintage may not have substance for truncated Russia anymore but for the people of Central Asia and of Pakistan, ECO is the means for economic self-sufficiency and progress.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment