The founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2001 attracted considerable interest from the international community. During the first few years of its existence, however, it came to be regarded as a Chinese-Russian alliance, set up primarily as a counterweight to the West to mitigate the geopolitical influence of NATO and the US in Central Asia, and within a few years, Western interest in the SCO noticeably declined. Neither the EU nor NATO has a clear policy towards the SCO even today. However, in view of the post-2014 situation in Afghanistan and the SCO’s possible enlargement to include India and Pakistan, to be decided at its next summit in the Russian city of Ufa in 2015, this position requires serious reconsideration.