SHANGHAI, June 15 � Five years after its founding as an obscure regional organization with a nondescript name, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization opened its annual gathering here on Thursday in an unaccustomed flush of interest from nations eager to join.
The growing attention paid to the six-member organization, which groups China, Russia and four of their central Asian neighbors, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, reflects the expanding power and assertiveness of its two largest members.
The group's fortunes have also risen with booming global energy markets, because it unites one of the world's largest and fastest growing energy consumers, China, with several of the largest producers. The politics of the global energy market have proved a powerful draw to many outsiders as well, from Iran to India and Pakistan, which are attending the meeting as observers.
With intensifying competition over supplies and rivalries over planned pipelines to major markets in the West and the Far East, the United States, Europe, Russia and China are all stepping up their diplomatic courtship of big producers in Central Asia. As a result, analysts say, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is emerging as a focal point in a region of complex diplomatic and military relations.
For many in the area, particularly the smaller nations, the competition among the major powers for influence and energy supplies presents an attractive opportunity to wrest more generous benefits, whether in aid, security guarantees or energy investments, than they could have dreamed of in previous years.
The attendance of Iran, which is in a diplomatic confrontation with the United States over suspicions that it is developing nuclear weapons, highlights a predicament for the organization.
The group was founded as a counterweight to United States influence in Central Asia, which is an essential, if undeclared, objective of Beijing and Moscow. But China in particular seems loath to challenge Washington directly when China is building its economy and, as a consequence, its national power, in great part through exports to the United States.
Chinese officials stated as much several days before the meeting, when the organization's secretary general, Zhang Deguang, a Chinese diplomat, declared that the body had no military ambitions to become an Eastern version of NATO.
With Iran pressing for membership, Chinese officials and those from other nations have also made clear that they are not ready to consider expanding the organization. But, a "contact group" has been formed to explore observer status for Afghanistan, whose president, Hamid Karzai, was expected to attend the meeting as a special guest.
In an address to the meeting on Thursday, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was uncharacteristically temperate, perhaps in deference to his hosts. He offered energy cooperation and avoided any mention of the nuclear standoff, though he did say Iran would like to see the group develop the strength "to block threats and unlawful, strong-arm interference from various countries," a not-so-subtle reference to the United States.
In addition to its oil, Iran has what are believed to be among the world's largest deposits of natural gas, but they remain mostly untapped for lack of investment. China and India are interested in helping to develop the reserves, though overland transport remains a problem, because any pipeline would have to pass through hostile territory.
The chief beneficiary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's rising status is China, which has an opportunity to act as an intermediary for the West, particularly with Iran.
"This is a time of challenge and opportunity for China," said Shen Dingli, a foreign relations specialist at Fudan University in Shanghai. "The challenge is that you may not feel happy. The opportunity is that China has good reason to handle its own diplomacy, to advance its bilateral relations and to shape Iran-China ties in a more mature direction. You encourage them to be more responsible, and if China can do this and produce a good outcome, this will advance China's image as a responsible stakeholder."
Mr. Shen said he expected the meeting to take up issues that hark back to the organization's origins, like the development of new energy projects and antiterrorism measures, including identifying specific groups as targets.
Yet, for all the interest the group is attracting, its list of accomplishments is short, some observers say.
"This is a very small group, whose operating budget is less than $30 million, and whose staff numbers just a few dozen people," said Alexandre Y. Mansourov, who specializes in Asian affairs at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. "There is a lot of spin surrounding it, but it's still in its infancy, and its importance really pales compared to what's happening in bilateral terms between China and Russia, the two big players."
In addition to Iran, which seeks to join the group, Pakistan, a longstanding ally of the United States whose ties with China are strengthening, reportedly has sought to join, proposing the construction of an "energy corridor" across its territory that would connect East Asia and the Middle East.
But the group's expansion is complicated by its statutes, which require unanimous agreement for such changes, and by the difficulties inherent in getting more members to agree on a common agenda.
"If the organization expands in the future, it is more likely to consider geographical factors first," said Zhao Huasheng, director of the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at Fudan University. "Neighboring countries, like Mongolia, are more likely to join. Distant countries are less likely, because their concerns are different, and cooperation with them would be more complicated."
