00:00Jeffrey Sachs is a public policy analyst and former senior UN advisor.
00:04I spoke to him a little earlier.
00:07The SCO members want the benefits of closer cooperation.
00:14These are countries that are geographically contiguous.
00:18They want transport, power, digital connectivity.
00:24And I think that SCO is playing that role,
00:27and it's going to play a greater role with the advent of a development banking institution
00:34associated with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
00:38Now, China, of course, is a driving force within the SCO.
00:42What does Beijing want to build economically through the organization?
00:48I think what Beijing wants is peace and connectivity across Eurasia.
00:55And with India, with Russia, with Iran, with the Central Asian countries,
01:02this is a great part of the Eurasian landmass.
01:06I think China would like Europe to be more cooperative,
01:11and I think that that will come in a good interconnected way.
01:17But what SCO represents is a large proportion of Eurasia
01:23that is aiming for peace, inclusive security, indivisible security,
01:30one might say a multilateral order,
01:34and the economic benefits that can come with all of that.
01:38You've mentioned financial infrastructure, economic benefits,
01:42but from energy and mining to AI and green industries,
01:47where do you see the biggest opportunities for SCO members to work together?
01:53Well, there's a close relationship of SCO and the Belt and Road Initiative.
01:59China's Belt and Road Initiative is the world's largest infrastructure finance program
02:06involving more than 100 countries.
02:08And a great part of that is directed towards China's own neighbors,
02:14which are, to a very significant extent, the SCO members.
02:19So there's a lot of financing there.
02:21There's a global pool of finance that is looking for places
02:26for good, stable, reliable, long-term investment.
02:30And Eurasian infrastructure, in my view, fits the bill.
02:35Now let's talk about Egypt, where Chinese trade and investment are growing fast.
02:40What does Egypt tell us about China's wider push across the Middle East and across Africa?
02:48Well, of course, Egypt is a center of civilization dating back 5,000 years,
02:56and it remains a very important country and a very important partner for China
03:04and a very important leader of Africa.
03:08Of course, it's in North Africa, but it plays a major role in what is increasingly
03:14truly an African union, not only in the organizational sense,
03:20but in the economic sense as well.
03:22So Egypt is important in its own right.
03:26Egypt is important as part of a unifying Africa.
03:31And the links of China and Africa actually go back a millennium.
03:39So this is not a new story.
03:42This is something that is long established.
03:45Egypt.
03:46Egypt is not broke, but there is still a country which is unifying Salem.
