Pepe Escobar: Rise of a Post-Western World at the SCO Summit

SCO began in 2001 against terrorism/separatism/extremism and has since evolved into a geo-economic organization focused on trade and local-currency settlement

Iran proposed an SCO Development Bank and Russia has agreed to support it

the proposed bank could be more effective than the BRICS NDB, whose statutes are tied to the dollar

significant bilateral meetings occurred between Putin, Modi, Xi, and separately Putin-Lukashenko-Erdogan

the Erdogan-Putin-Lukashenko meeting may have concerned Erdogan's future orientation

the final declaration mixes cautious diplomacy with real assertiveness on Iran

Western coverage of the summit was essentially absent, reflecting a childish refusal to engage with the Eurasian integration space

the West's refusal to acknowledge Eurasian integration does not stop it from happening

Iran receives substantial diplomatic, geopolitical, geo-economic and in some cases military support from Russia and China

Vladivostok will host Indonesia's president and delegations like Malaysia's, showing Eurasian connectivity the West ignores

the German public should accept deindustrialization as the price of pursuing militarism without money

the SCO's forward-looking agenda contrasts starkly with Europe's lack of optimism

Russia, China and Iran form a 'Three Musketeers' anchoring Eurasian integration via the Belt and Road Initiative

Xi likely won't seek anything from the Trump administration since China's focus is on expanding across Eurasia instead

many in China increasingly view the West's decline as self-inflicted

reportedly told an Atlantic Council audience Russia could try aligning with China, and if that failed, with Iran too

today's Russia-China-Iran alignment should have been predictable from that 1997 remark

India was uncomfortable not being a protagonist and pushed to soften the declaration's language on the Iran war to avoid anti-American framing. there is a feeling in Iran that Modi's pre-war meeting with the Israeli leader was a bad sign, and India has never condemned U.S./Israeli actions against Iran

Russia and China's posture is better characterized as anti-hegemonic rather than anti-American

Turkey is hedging too much between NATO/Israel ties and SCO ambitions and risks missing the Eurasia train

Turkey is seen as untrustworthy, playing unpredictable games and breaking deals

reported Israeli threats against Turkey, plus an assumed U.S. preference for Israel, could force Turkey to align more with rising Eastern powers

Iran and Russia proposed an SCO Development Bank bypassing the dollar, and Iran separately proposed an SCO energy consortium to stabilize prices

roughly 98-99% of Russian trade with SCO partners already bypasses the U.S. dollar

the current Russia-China-Iran coalition realizes the historic Anglo-American 'nightmare' scenario described by Mackinder's geopolitics. Western strategic elites have a psychological and cultural block preventing them from accepting the shift toward Eurasian integration

Afghan jihadism since 1979 was instigated and manufactured by the U.S. with Pakistani intelligence, a lesson now shaping SCO efforts to stabilize Afghanistan