The members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are expected to sign an anti-extremism convention during the 17th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State held in Kazakhstan. It is their latest effort to combat the three evil forces of separatism, extremism and terrorism.

Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off his four-day trip to Kazakhstan on Wednesday, during which he is scheduled to attend the 17th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State and the opening ceremony of Astana Expo 2017.

The SCO has listed the fight against separatism, extremism and terrorism as their major mission since its founding in 2001.

During the summit held in Tashkent in 2004, the SCO set up a regional anti-terrorism institution to enhance their coordination, through which the members could share intelligence and their experience on fight against terrorism.

The document they would sign comes as increasingly frequent terrorist attacks by international terror organizations have increased safety risks of each member state.

Against such backdrop, the world casts more eyes on how the SCO would improve the efficiency of security cooperation and fight against the three evil forces in a more efficient way.

An intra-SCO cooperation among the member states as well as the cooperation between SCO and other international organizations must be enhanced to fight against regional extremism and terrorism, said chief research fellow Konstantin Syroezhkin with Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan (KazISS).

He told the People’s Daily that close monitoring on the regional recruitment of extremist terror groups such as ISIS should be carried out, in a bid to prevent ideological infiltration.

“Central Asia should never be the target or the origin of religious extremism and terrorist attacks,” Syroezhkin stressed.

India and Pakistan will officially join the SCO in Astana during the summit, further improving the organization’s cooperation potential and international influence.

Professor Han Xudong from National Defense University of Chinese People's Liberation Army said that the enlargement of the organization will bring both opportunities and challenges.

With the expansion of the SCO, the organization will be able to enhance coordination on the fight against the three evil forces, make better strategies to safeguard regional peace and stability, and deal with disputes and conflicts between the countries in a more proper manner, he elaborated.

However, the enlargement also hints new challenges, Han said, explaining that more conflicts over interests will emerge when coordination or unified actions are necessary, and disputes are possible to rise because of each member state’s different understanding of the three evil forces.

The membership of India and Pakistan will further enhance the security cooperation of the SCO, safeguard each country’s regime and homeland security, as well as promote regional peace and stability, noted B. R. Deepak, professor from the Center of Chinese and South East Asian Studies under the India-based Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The SCO holds tremendous promise for the future generations of the Eurasian region, said Syed Hasan Javed, director of Chinese Studies Centre under the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, National University of Sciences and Technology of Pakistan.

The SCO will become the harbinger of peace, prosperity, stability, harmony and security in the world, he believed, adding that the membership enlargement of the SCO will set in motion, a new era of cooperative ventures in the region.

It will neutralize the negative and destabilizing influences of the extra- territorial powers and their proxies during the last several decades, widely benefiting the people of each member country, Javed noted.