Escobar: ''Samarkand Spirit'' To Be Driven By "Responsible Powers" Russia China Escobar: ''Samarkand Spirit'' To Be Driven By "Responsible Powers" Russia China Authored by Pepe Escobar, The SCO summit of Asian power players delineated a road map for strengthening the multipolar world… Amidst serious tremors in the world of geopolitics, it is so fitting that this year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) heads of state summit should have taken place in Samarkand – the ultimate Silk Road crossroads for 2,500 years. When in 329 BC Alexander the Great reached the then Sogdian city of Marakanda, part of the Achaemenid empire, he was stunned: “Everything I have heard about Samarkand it’s true, except it is even more beautiful than I had imagined.” Fast forward to an Op-Ed by Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev published ahead of the SCO summit, where he stresses how Samarkand now “can become a platform that is able to unite and reconcile states with various foreign policy priorities.” After all, historically, the world from the point of view of the Silk Road landmark has always been “perceived as one and indivisible, not divided.