13th annual summit of SCO starts today in Dushanbe
By Tabana Sharifov for Dispatch News Desk
Dushanbe, Tajikistan: All is set for 13th annual summit of heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that is starting today September 11 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Security is among the top issues for 13th annual summit and all members during the last meeting reached a consensus on fighting against separatism, extremism and terrorism, as well as on safeguarding regional peace and security therefore Afghanistan will be focal point during talks in Dushanbe, claim some diplomats of member countries.
Current members of the organization are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan while India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia are due to become a full member at the summit by upgrading their “observer member” status.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization or SCO is a Eurasian political, economic and military organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Before inclusion of Uzbekistan, this group and organization was called “Shanghai Five” that was founded in 1996. The official working languages of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are Chinese and Russian. There is possibility that English may be included as official working language of SCO after joining of India and Pakistan as full members because both countries have no link with Chinese and Russian historically and were ruled by British Raj therefore English is language of convenience for both countries.
According to reports, the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a separate meeting during the summit to discuss issue of regional security in reference with Afghanistan and terrorism.
SCO is strongest regional organization and six countries cover an area of over 30 million square kilometers, or about three fifths of Eurasia, with a population of over 1.6 billion, about a quarter of the world’s total. After giving full member status fo India, Pakistan, Iran and Mangolia, SCO will become one of the biggest security organization in the world.
Turkmenistan’s president and heads of certain international organisations have been invited to the summit as guests.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran. The upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will boost cooperation in the three major fields of economy, security and people-to-people exchanges.
All member states have a consensus that the SCO should keep expanding itself, promote mutual trust and enrich the content of cooperation. Promoting further development of the SCO serves the interests of all parties, which lays foundation for overcoming all difficulties, reports Chinese media.
“Security in Afghanistan is one of the issues for SCO members as many of the SCO members share common borders with Afghanistan and face direct impacts of the situation in war torn Afghanistan”, said a diplomat when was asked to comment on agenda of the meeting.
