Mr. Zhang Ming, the Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), arrived in Dushanbe on an official visit on May 2. On the same day, he held talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
The Tajik president’s official website says the parties discussed state and prospects of further expansion of cooperation between the SCO member nations.
Rahmon reportedly expressed satisfaction with a fruitful activity of the Organization over the past twenty years, the level of cooperation between its member nations, and the results of the SCO jubilee summit that had been held in Dushanbe.
They, in particular, discussed political, economic, transportation, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between the Organization’s member countries.
A special attention was reportedly given to practical measures to liquidate socioeconomic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic within the SCO area, cooperate in combating terrorism and extremism, providing information security and combating cybercrime.
Rahmon and Zhang also discussed Tajikistan’s initiatives to set up the SCO Drug Control Center in Dushanbe and Tajikistan’s proposal to develop and adopt the SCO region economic development strategy for the period up to 2030.
The parties also exchanged views on the latest developments in Afghanistan, the Tajik president’s official website says.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded at a Summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members — China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Besides, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states.
It is to be noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran came one step closer to becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on September 17 last year with the approval of its bid, 15 years after it first applied. On September 17m 2021, the SCO launched the procedures of Iran's accession to the SCO, which are expected to take "a fair amount of time". Thus, it took two years for India and Pakistan to complete the accession procedures.
SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances.
