President Asif Ali Zardari is in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s 12th summit. A regional economic cooperation forum, SCO has broadened its ambit to include stability and peace discourse to facilitate unhindered economic progress for the region. This broadened approach is linked to the fear that once US-led NATO forces leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the residuals of the war on terror, the extremists, could plunge the region into a civil war. All eyes are set on Pakistan, and over its alleged protection to the Taliban and other extremist groups in its tribal belt. Russia and China had been talking, at times rather sternly, to Pakistan over its guardianship of the militants. China had told Pakistan unequivocally to rein in the Uighur extremists housed and being trained in Pakistan to fight a war of independence in Xinjiang. Russia has condemned Pakistan’s involvement in sheltering Central Asian militant groups such as the Islamic Movement for Uzbekistan and Islamic Jihad. Diplomats in the UN have joined China and Russia, saying that militant Pakistani groups, including Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, are assisting foreign militants. Pakistan being centre-stage, the SCO forum should be used as an opportunity to assuage the fears held by the region against Pakistan and to give a real, genuine and honest surety that Pakistan’s soil will not be used for any extremist attack in any foreign country. President Zardari is right when he says that economic development in the border regions could help mellow extremism. However, unless the mistaken notion of strategic depth is abandoned, talk of economic prosperity sounds undeliverable and a sham. Valuing economic prosperity as the core developmental issue, China and Russia have decided to play a greater role in Afghanistan. China and Afghanistan will sign a strategic agreement at the SCO. Chinese firms would soon fetch new businesses in oil and raw minerals from Afghanistan. China is prepared to develop Afghanistan’s mineral resources once the war is over and have indicated having Pakistan on its side as a junior partner to share the benefits. Russia too through SCO wants to have economic participation in the rebuilding and development of Afghanistan. It has already shown interest in improving the Salang Tunnel highway, the critical link between Kabul and the north, which the Soviets built in the 1970s. As far as Pakistan is concerned, President Zardari has pledged $ 20 billion to support the Afghan National Security Forces. Pakistan’s interest in granting financial support to AFNS reflects its desire to see a stable and peaceful Afghanistan. Afghanistan is in need of every penny in aid to build itself and save its future generations from the scourge of war. Unfortunately the endgame in Afghanistan seems precarious. Though NATO forces were seen as a threat by the region in different periods, now with their departure time announced, the fear of a known enemy has come to grip even the strongest of regional players. With the US announcing that drone strikes would continue and Pakistan taking a hard line on not curbing home grown militants, the spectre of extremism seems all the more alive. China is deeply concerned about the precarious political situation in Pakistan that it fears might lead to strengthening fundamentalism. Catharine Ashton, the High Representative of the EU, in her recent visit to Pakistan had referred eloquently to the human rights crisis leading Pakistan into the doldrums. Amazingly it is no more Afghanistan but Pakistan that is feared for extremism. At the time of the US departure from the region, such a twist of fate is a bad omen for Pakistan. SCO has decided rightly to dilate its responsibilities to make peace and regional stability its core issues. Let us hope the inclusive dialogue process initiated in SCO helps Pakistan become a dependable and amicable state for all its neighbours. *