The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit Aug. 28-29 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, brought the leaders of China and Russia together for the first time since the Georgian war ended. Speaking at the summit in the Tajik capital on Aug. 28, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said the SCO is "an authoritative organization that commands respect … and will consider adding new members." Highlighted by the Russian resurgence and the Georgian war is an inherent tension between two competing visions of the SCO: Moscow's and Beijing's. Since the organization's inception in 2001, Moscow has seen the SCO as a political and security alliance that could one day rival NATO in terms of organization and capability. With its competition with the West coming to a head in recent weeks, Russia would prefer that the SCO evolve into a true military alliance as soon as possible.