PRESS RELEASE

Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers from Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

A regular session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) took place on July 9, 2007, in Bishkek, capital of the Kyrgyz Republic. In attendance were Marat Tazhin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Yang Jiechi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China; Ednan Karabayev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic; Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; Hamrokhon Zarifi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan; and Vladimir Norov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Bolat Nurgaliyev, SCO Secretary General, delivered a report on the work of the Secretariat in the past year. Myrzakan Subanov, Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure (RATS), attended the session.

The session was held under the chairmanship of the Kyrgyz side.

In the light of the upcoming session of the SCO Council of Heads of State (CHS), scheduled for August 16, 2007, in Bishkek, the ministers reviewed the implementation of the instructions and decisions of the Anniversary Summit held in Shanghai on June 15, 2006. They noted with satisfaction that fruitful work had been carried out during the past year to deepen and expand multifaceted cooperation in the area of security as well as in the political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields. Decisions were adopted on a number of questions pertaining to the upcoming CHS session in Bishkek.

An exchange of views took place on the current international situation. There was stated the similarity or identity of the approaches of the SCO member states to pressing global and regional problems, which creates broad opportunities for partnership in international affairs. The common intention was reaffirmed to consistently intensify cooperation and coordination among the foreign affairs agencies.

There was noted the continuing expansion of the SCO’s international ties and growth of the Organization’s world prestige as a whole. The ministers stressed the importance of intensifying further collaboration with the SCO observer states as well as with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan within the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group. They accentuated the relevance and urgency of further developing cooperation with the CIS, ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Community on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding between the secretariats of these organizations, as well as of making effective use of the observer status received by the SCO with the UN General Assembly.

The ministers reaffirmed that, guided by the open character of the Organization, member states are disposed towards constructive interaction with all interested multilateral associations and states on the basis of the principles of equality and the generally recognized rules of international law. They also stressed the importance of the work on creating mechanisms for cooperation by the SCO with international partners, particularly under the auspices of RATS.

The ministers approved the report of the Secretary General on the work of the Secretariat in the past year, acknowledging that the reorganization of the Secretariat’s structure had contributed to enhancing the effectiveness of its activities.

The ministers positively assessed the work being carried out in preparation of the SCO summit in Bishkek on August 16, 2007.

The meeting passed in a spirit of friendship and understanding.

The full text of the speech of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov is posted on the Russian MFA’s web site.

Kuala Lumpur, July 9, 2007