2016 Tashkent Summit Stressed Cultural-Humanitarian Issue

On July 11, 2015 the presidency in the organization was passed to the Republic of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan along with Member States, has carried out significant work on expansion of cooperation to be better coor­dination of relationships, strengthening the role of the organization in the international arena.

Uzbekistan paid special attention to im­proving the efficiency of the organization through the development of international relations of the SCO. The Heads of State dis­cussed the main results of the 15 years-long activity of the SCO.

At the meeting it was stressed that in­ternational terrorism, extremism and their other manifestations are now a growing threat for all countries of the world and the intention of the SCO summit is also to coun­ter these challenges only by strengthening the joint cooperation and consolidation of efforts of the world community.

In accordance with the provisions of the Charter and other documents of the SCO, the means of delivery of the develop­ment and implementation of measures will continue to be a priority area of interaction within the organization.

The need to intensify joint ef for t s to create a safe, fair and open information space, rely­ing on the principles of cooperation and respect for national sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries was underlined.

Particular attention was paid to exchanging experi­ence on effectively counter­ing a slowdown of the economy, introduc­tion of innovative technologies, formation of a favorable investment and business cli­mate, implementation of long-term mutu­ally beneficial projects in the priority areas of cooperation and infrastructure develop­ment as well as to develop cooperation in transport communications, energy, culture and other areas.

The heads of delegations of the SCO ob­server states – President of the Islamic Re­public of Afghanistan Ashraf Gani, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Prime Minister of the Republic of India Narendra Modi, President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin El­begdorj, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain, Minister of For­eign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif and the guest of the presiding state – President of Turkmeni­stan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov also at­tended the extended meeting of the SCO summit.

UN Under-Secretary-General Jeffrey Felt­man, Chairman of the Executive Committee – Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States Sergey Lebedev, Sec­retary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Nikolay Bordyuzha, ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh and Executive Director of the Secretariat of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building measures in Asia Gong Jianwei were also present.

The Heads of State welcomed the sign­ing of memoranda on granting the SCO Dialogue Partner status to the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia and Nepal.

Following the summit meeting, the Tashkent Declaration of the Fifteenth An­niversary of the SCO, the Action Plan 2016- 2020 for the implementation of the SCO De­velopment Strategy towards 2025, Program on Development of Cooperation of the SCO Member States in the Sphere of Tourism and other documents were signed.

Republic of Uzbekistan gained high ap­preciation during its presidency in the SCO. President Islam Karimov pointed out in front of the media that the meeting was held in the spirit of mutual trust and respect, the reached agreements and will serve the inter­ests of the SCO member states and observer countries.

SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov emphasized the historical importance of Uz­bekistan’s presidency in the organization, high level of organization of all activities in the framework of its presidency and the SCO Tashkent summit as a whole. He expressed his sincere gratitude to the people and lead­ership of Uzbekistan.

The Tashkent SCO summit concluded its work. Surely, it takes a special place in the history of the SCO as a summit at which im­portant agreements were reached in order to enhance the efficiency of the organiza­tion, promoting regional cooperation and strengthening security. The Republic of Ka­zakhstan shall take over the presidency in the Organization for the upcoming period.