SCO to discuss ways of stepping up regional security cooperation.

22/4 Tass 306

MOSCOW, April 22 (Itar-Tass) - The Security Councils' secretaries from
the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will consider
regional security issues at their meeting which opens in Tashkent on
Thursday.
Russia is represented by an inter-departmental delegation led by
Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, an official at the Russian
Security Council told Itar-Tass earlier.
In the course of the meeting on April 22-23, "it is planned to discuss
- in bilateral and multi-party formats - the issues of counteracting the
emerging challenges and threats."
An official press release noted that the participants would also
consider "the mechanisms of interaction in fighting terrorism, separatism,
drug- and weapons-trafficking and other common threats."
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent regional
organization comprising six members: Russia, China, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The observer status was granted to
Mongolia (2004), and India, Iran and Pakistan (2005).
In 2009, Sri-Lanka and Belarus were granted the status of partners in
SCO dialogue. The organization is an observer at the UN General Assembly.
The SCO is one of the most influential international organizations,
despite it recent establishment. It was officially set up in June 2001,
but the member-states have been conducting a dialogue for 13 years.
On April 26, 1996, the heads of five states - Russia, China,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - signed in Shanghai the agreements
on confidence building in the military fields in the border areas.
A political association was thus formed, known as the "Shanghai Five,"
whose main objective was to ensure stability along the borders of former
Soviet republics and China. Over time, the five countries went beyond the
framework of cross border cooperation, and in 2000, the "Shanghai Five"
became the Shanghai forum.
On June 14, 2001, Uzbekistan joined the quintet at the summit in
Shanghai. On June 15, the heads of six states signed the declaration
establishing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. On June 7, 2002, the
parties signed the SCO Charter at the summit in St.Petersburg.
The SCO territory, including the observer countries', stretches from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Artic Ocean to the
Indian Ocean. It accounts for 61 percent of Eurasia, or one-quarter of the
world's land. The aggregate population potential - over 1.5 billion people
- makes up one quarter of Earth's population, and with the population of
the observer countries it makes slightly less than half of Earth's
population. The aggregate economic potential that includes the Chinese
economy, the world's second biggest after the USA, accounts for 45 percent
of the world market.
Initially, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established for
resolving the security problems on the borders of the member-states and
combating terrorism, separatism and extremism in Central Asia. Gradually,
the SCO expanded its spheres of interest, and became an organization of
varied cooperation, responsible for securing peace, well-being and joint
prosperity of the member-states.
The objectives of the alliance are stability and security in the
region, as well as the development of cooperation in the political,
economic and humanitarian spheres.
-0-myz/gor