Sergey Saenko, international observer

On July 28-29, a meeting of the Foreign Ministers (SMFA) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO, Organization) was held in Tashkent. The event was attended by the foreign ministers of all eight SCO member states, as well as the Secretary General of the Organization Zhang Ming and the director of the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the SCO Ruslan Mirzaev. Our country was represented at the meeting in the capital of Uzbekistan by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Recall that the SCO is a permanent regional international association, the establishment of which was announced on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai. The members of the SCO are Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Observer countries – Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, dialogue partner countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.

It should be noted right away that at the Ministerial Council meeting in Tashkent, special attention was paid to the preparation of the upcoming meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Member States (CHS) on September 15-16 in Samarkand. At this summit, it is planned to consider the state of and prospects for the further development of multilateral cooperation, to determine priorities and practical measures to build up the activities of the Organization at the present stage. Particular attention will be paid to enhancing the role of the SCO in world affairs in the light of the emerging geopolitical realities.

Based on this, at a meeting in Tashkent, the ministers reviewed the progress in the development of the SCO CHS documents, the adoption and subsequent implementation of which will give a qualitatively new impetus to interaction in the areas of politics, security, economics and humanitarian ties. The common positions of the member states will be recorded in the Samarkand Declaration. The Ministerial Council approved a solid package of documents for the next SCO summit. Among them are the drafts of the Comprehensive Plan for the Implementation of the Treaty on Long-term Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, the Concept of Cooperation on the Development of Interconnection and the Creation of Efficient Transport Corridors, the Program for Stimulating Industrial Cooperation between Business Circles, the Provisions on the honorary title “Goodwill Ambassador of the SCO ” and others.

As Sergei Lavrov said after the meeting in Tashkent, at the forthcoming summit in Samarkand the SCO leaders will also discuss how to intensify trade in national currencies. “Today we agreed to submit a proposal for specific actions for the transition to settlements in national currencies to the leaders,” said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

In addition, at the SCO CHS in Samarkand, it is planned to sign memorandums on Iran’s obligations in order to obtain the status of a member state and to provide a dialogue partnership to Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, as well as to make decisions on starting the procedure for admitting Belarus to the SCO and granting status to Bahrain and the Maldives dialogue partner. There is a common understanding in the Organization that the replenishment of the “SCO family” will give a significant impetus to multifaceted interaction in the field of ensuring regional security, the development of trade, investment and industrial cooperation, and will contribute to the further development of the huge transport and transit potential in the SCO space.

In Tashkent, the foreign ministers discussed the current state and prospects for developing cooperation in various areas of the SCO’s activities, expanding its institutional ties with international partners. In addition, an important item on the agenda of the ministerial meeting was the exchange of views on topical issues of the regional and global agenda. In particular, at the initiative of Russia, in the format of interested parties, a Joint Statement was adopted on strengthening the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons.

The Ministerial Council meeting in the capital of Uzbekistan also demonstrated the ongoing dynamic expansion of the network of SCO partner organizations. In particular, the ministers supported the proposal to sign memorandums of understanding with the League of Arab States (LAS), UN specialized agencies – ESCAP and UNESCO within the framework of the Samarkand summit. The opinions of the parties were unanimous in the need for greater involvement of SCO observer states and SCO dialogue partners in practical cooperation within the Organization.

It should be noted that the participants of the Ministerial Council meeting in Tashkent emphasized that the SCO, relying on the “Shanghai spirit”, embodying mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, respect for the diversity of cultures and the desire for joint development, for more than two decades since its inception, established itself as one of the influential participants in the modern system of international relations. For this reason, the Organization, which unites almost half of the world’s population, today has to be reckoned with all over the world.

In this regard, it is not at all surprising that the meeting in Tashkent confirmed the general intention to strengthen the SCO line on the world stage, excluding bloc and confrontational approaches to solving existing regional and international problems. And the results of the meeting demonstrated the coincidence and similarity of positions on topical regional and international issues, strengthening stability and security in Central Asia – the “geographical core” of the SCO.

Along with this, the ministers heard information from SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming and Director of the RATS Executive Committee Ruslan Mirzaev on the activities of the Organization’s permanent bodies over the past year.

In conclusion, we note that on July 29, the heads of delegations participating in the meeting of the SCO Ministerial Council held in Tashkent were received by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. During the meeting, priority tasks of multilateral cooperation and prospects for further development of the Organization were discussed. Particular attention was paid to the results of joint activities over the past period of Uzbekistan’s chairmanship in the SCO and the agenda of the upcoming summit in Samarkand in September this year. There was also an exchange of views on topical issues of the international and regional agenda.