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SCO leaders vow to boost regional security, economic, cultural ties |
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Saturday, 18 June 2011The leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries announced that they plan to enhance regional security, economic, and cultural cooperation in the closing statement of the SCO summit, which ended on Wednesday in Astana.
At the two-day summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon, Kyrgyzstan's President Roza Otunbayeva, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other leaders reviewed the achievements of the group in the past decade, and charted a blueprint for the future.
President Ahmadinejad called for a security alliance of several former Soviet nations and China to form a united front against the west.
Ahmadinejad's address to heads of state at the summit of the SCO, in Kazakhstan showed that the bloc is intended as a counterbalance to U.S. influence across the region, AP reported.
In a summit declaration signed by all the member states, the organization also attacked missile defense programs.
“The one-sided and unlimited development of missile defense systems by one government, or a narrow group of governments, could cause damage to strategic stability and international security,” the document said.
Ahmadinejad described western countries as “enslavers, colonialists and invaders”.
The SCO was formed in Shanghai in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, to address religious extremism and border security in central Asia. In recent years it has attracted interest in full membership from Iran, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Its scope has since broadened to economic issues.
Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, who is also participating in the summit, the SCO's 10th, renewed calls for the U.S. to respect his country's sovereignty. In recent months the president has become increasingly strident in his criticism of NATO air strikes affecting Afghan civilians, describing the western-led alliance as being at risk of becoming an “occupying force”.
The leaders pointed out that the SCO, weathering 10 years of major international and regional changes, had become an important mechanism in deepening good-neighborly partnership between member states, according to the communiqué, Xinhua reported.
The summit approved the 2011-2016 drug control strategy of the SCO member states and its implementation plan, which would be conducive to enhancing the capabilities of member states in jointly dealing with drug threats in the region, the communiqué said.
The member states reiterated they would continue to fight against all forms of terrorism, separatism and extremism as well as drug and weapon trafficking, other transnational crimes and illegal immigration, the communiqué added.
The summit also emphasized it was imperative SCO members jointly pushed the international community to form a common standard of behavior on international information security.
The leaders also expressed concern that continuous deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan remained one of the major threats to regional security and stability.
The SCO member states believed military means alone could not solve Afghanistan's problems and that attention must be first paid to its social and economic issues, including reconstruction of transportation and social infrastructure, the communiqué stated.
The communiqué said the SCO supported its member states in working together with international institutions and other parties to take part in economic reconstruction programs in Afghanistan.
The leaders stressed the member states had played an active role in helping turmoil-hit Kyrgyzstan return to stability and provided a large amount of humanitarian and financial assistance.
On the economic front, the summit pointed out that economic activities at the ministerial level had been remarkably enhanced since the SCO Dushanbe summit in November last year.
The summit, therefore, proposed the industrialists committee and the inter-bank union adopt substantial common action, implement multilateral programs in order to promote the socioeconomic development of member states and increase financing cooperation efforts.
The member states also said cultural and people-to-people cooperation was of importance significance to boosting good-neighborly cooperation, and members would therefore pay high attention to cooperation in culture, environmental protection, science and technology, innovation, public health, tourism and sports.
Member states pledged to strengthen cooperation with observers and dialogue partners, whose potential would provide a huge driving force for further strengthening the SCO, it said.
Founded on June 15, 2001, the SCO groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Observer countries include Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran and India while Belarus and Sri Lanka are dialogue partners.
The next SCO summit will be held in 2012 in China, according to the communiqué.
China will become the president country of next year's SCO summit, according to the SCO Charter.
Leaders of the member states also announced 2011-2012 as the SCO's year of good-neighborliness and friendship.
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Saturday, 18 June 2011
Tehran Times
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