The 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held via video link on November 1.
The heads of delegations (prime ministers and foreign ministers) of the SCO member states exchanged views on key issues of global and regional development, and discussed priority steps to increase trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation within the SCO.
Who attended the summit?
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang hosted the meeting in Beijing.
The meeting was attended by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Kazakhstan Prime Minister Alihan Smaiylov, Prime Minister of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda, Uzbekistan Prime Minister Zbdulla Aripov, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic Akylbek Zhaparov.
Security, trade and food
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called on the SCO countries to improve further cooperation in security, trade, food, and energy supply. He said China will also continue to strengthen cooperation with the SCO member states on all fronts.
Li shared five suggestions to promote cooperation within the SCO:
- Deepen cooperation on law-enforcement and security and create a stable and safe environment for development.
- Improve convenience for trade and investment, to boost regional economic recovery.
- Strengthen inter-connectivity, and to realize regional integrated development, and to safeguard the stability and resilience of the industrial chains.
- Improve food and energy supplies to boost sustainable development.
- Improve people-to-people exchanges.
Highlights of joint communique
The heads of governments of SCO member states emphasize the need of expanding and deepening cooperation in financial, investment, industrial, transport, energy, agricultural, and other areas, in the interests of sustainable socio-economic development in the SCO region.
The heads of delegations also discussed approaches to solving the problems of international and regional development, countering traditional and non-traditional security challenges and threats.
The SCO heads of state said that they were in favor of deepening interaction in the field of the digital economy and digital technologies to ensure the inclusive economic growth of the SCO Member States.
They stressed the importance of collaboration in science and technology and also discussed the SCO program on Artificial Intelligence.
They urged cooperation among SCO member states in the agriculture field and rational use of water resources to ensure food Security. An international SCO Conference on Food Security is expected to be held in Uzbekistan in 2023.
They also discussed the climate agenda and efforts to establish an active dialogue to attract investments and finance joint projects and programs in environmental protection and introduction of new environmentally friendly technologies, and increase the green economy share.
They agreed to further strengthen cooperation in tourism between the SCO member states.
All countries except India said they “reaffirmed their support for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)”, including the work to promote the alignment of BRI with the construction of the Eurasian Economic Union.
SCO mmebers
China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India and Uzbekistan are full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are SCO observer countries, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey are the bloc’s dialogue partners.