Implementing the Silk Road Economic Belt: from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to the Silk Road Union?

The concept of the Silk Road Economic Belt put forward by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2013 has two major dimensions: "the Road" and "the Belt". This article examines the background, the legal status, values, institutional framework and major areas of cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). In doing so, it argues that building "the Road" may lead to the following: (a) the transformation of the SCO from hitherto primarily security-oriented alliance into "the Belt", i.e. an organisation pursuing also deep economic cooperation, and (b) the establishment of a Silk Road Union based on partnership between SCO and the Eurasian alliance, constituted by two most important regional integration groupings created in the post-Soviet area, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union.