LONDON -- When I was in Moscow a few months ago I got into an argument with a retired high-level NATO official.

I was arguing that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), despite its humble origins, had become an important multilateral institution of global geopolitical significance.

My case was based on the way in which the organization's 2005 summit meeting in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, called on the United States to remove its troops from Central Asia, with observer countries India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia raising no objections.