SCO PMs offer boost to multi-tiered regional cooperation
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Prime ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) nations agreed Thursday to further strengthen cooperation in security, politics, trade and other areas.
The chorus for broader collaboration came at the 9th prime ministers' meeting of the six-member organization, held here in the Tajik capital, which grouped Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao; his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan; and a deputy prime minister of Uzbekistan.
In a friendly, constructive and pragmatic atmosphere, the leaders hashed over and reached extensive consensus on the regional political and economic situations, security and stability and internal cooperation, said a joint communique released after the conference.
Noting that terrorism, secessionism, extremism, drug-trafficking and cross-border organized crime were the severest threats to regional stability and security, the prime ministers agreed that SCO members should deepen cooperation and formulate preventive measures in order to contain the hazards and safeguard regional development.
With the global political, economic and security fronts still struggling in the fallout of the latest financial crisis, the leaders highlighted the cooperative spirit of recent SCO meetings, and stressed the need to build on the momentum to promote collaboration and coordination on macroeconomic and financial policy-making.
They also pledged to continue consultations on creating a special banking mechanism to facilitate economic and trade cooperation within the framework, and invited business leaders and bankers to join the efforts, the communique said.
All the parties, they suggested, should also carry out concerted efforts to better the livelihood of their people, and shore up endeavors both within and outside the bloc for common development as envisioned in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.
Also underscored were the need to improve traffic interconnectivity among SCO members and broaden cooperation in agriculture, culture, customs, disaster relief, environmental protection, health and science and technology.
Meanwhile, the prime ministers lauded the smooth running of Kyrgyzstan's recent parliamentary election, reaffirming that the SCO respected the choice of the Kyrgyz public and supported the Kyrgyz government in improving the country's socioeconomic situation after the bloody political and ethnic turmoils earlier this year.
The next SCO prime ministers' meeting is to be held in Russia in 2011, according to the joint communique.
Also present at the gathering were delegates from SCO observers India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan, and the economic minister of Afghanistan as a guest of the host country.
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