Foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member nations said Wednesday that they support a multipolar world and oppose unilateralism and trade protectionism.
The top diplomats of India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov and Jumakhon Ghiyosov, Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), attended a ministerial meeting in Kyrgyz capital on May 22.
According to Xinhua, the ministers said in a press release that the top priority of the international community is to establish a multipolar world in accordance with common interests and based on the norms of international law as well as principles of respecting each other's interests, multilateralism, equal and indivisible security and rejection to confrontation and conflict.
The ministers called for common aspirations of promoting the building of a new type of international relations, featuring mutual respect, equality, justice and win-win cooperation, and building a community with a shared future for mankind.
They said it is necessary to improve global economic governance system and develop trade and investment cooperation.
The World Trade Organization remains the important and only platform for global trade negotiations, they stressed.
The foreign ministers supported tapping the potential of national and international institutions to build up broad, open, mutually beneficial and equal partnerships in the SCO area.
They agreed to improve the legal basis for cooperation in trade, finance, science and technology and people-to-people exchanges.
The SCO top diplomats urged the international community to pay due attention to global threats and challenges, including terrorism, separatism, extremism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, drug trafficking, organized crimes, cybercrimes, regional conflicts, uneven development, grain market fluctuations and climate change.
They also underlined the significance of safeguarding and implementing the Iran nuclear deal and called on all sides to fulfill respective obligations.
A joint communique issued by the ministers following their talks, in particular, notes that the SCO member nations will jointly oppose any form of unilateralism and trade protectionism.
The ministers also signed a number of preparatory documents for the upcoming Bishkek Summit.
The SCO was founded at a Summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members — China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states, and SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances.
