The Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization, H.E. Mr. Khusrav Noziri participated in the 21st Jubilee Summit of the Council of Heads of State/Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held on September 17, 2021 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
The jubilee event witnessed the participation of SCO Heads of State/Government, including the host President of Tajikistan, H.E. Mr. Emomali Rahmon. The President of Turkmenistan, H.E. Mr. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov attended the meeting as the guest of honour. Other Heads of State/Government of China (virtually), India (virtually), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia (virtually), Uzbekistan as well as Heads of SCO Observer States, including Presidents of Belarus, Iran and Mongolia (virtually) participated in the SCO’s mega event. The Summit was also attended by the SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov and Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Jumakhon Giyosov, as well as the UN Secretary General (virtually) and Secretaries General of other regional organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, and Eurasian Economic Union.
The SCO leaders summarized the status of their activities and engagements made during their twenty years of cooperation. They further discussed, inter alia, the challenges being currently faced by the SCO and the possible ways and means of expanded multilateral activism with a view to addressing the emerging needs and requirements of the SCO region. In addition to deliberations on enhancement of regional partnership, the agenda of the Dushanbe Summit, included security threats in the SCO region and its neighboring states, particularly Afghanistan’s current situation, the COVID-19 pandemic and collective measures to combat the negative impacts of Coronavirus on SCO economies and other such issues. Also, the SCO leaders proceeded to grant SCO membership to the Islamic Republic of Iran and dialogue partner status to Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The event concluded with the signing of the Dushanbe Declaration and a package of 30 other documents.
The next Summit of the Organization will be held in Uzbekistan in 2022.
