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Council of
Heads of SCO Member States
meets in
Shanghai |
On 15 June
2006, the sixth annual meeting of the Council of Heads of
Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation took
place in Shanghai. The heads of state issued a joint
communiqué. The following is the full text of the communiqué:
Joint Communiqué of the Meeting of the Council of
Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation
On 15
June 2006, the Council of Heads of Member States of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (hereinafter referred to as
the Organisation or the SCO) met in Shanghai, the People’s
Republic of China. The meeting was attended by President
Nursultan Nazarbaev of the Republic of Kazakhstan, President
Hu Jintao of the People’s Republic of China, President
Kurmanbek Bakiev of the Kyrgyz Republic, President Vladimir
Putin of the Russian Federation, President Emomali Rakhmonov
of the Republic of Tajikistan and President Islam Karimov of
the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Secretary-General Zhang Deguang of
the Organisation and Director Viacheslav Kasymov of the
Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist
Structure attended the meeting.
Representatives of the Observer
States of the Organisation, namely, Shri Murli Deora, Minister
of Petroleum and Natural Gas of the Republic of India, Mahmud
Ahmadi-Nejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran,
Nambaryn Enkhbayar, President of Mongolia, Pervez Musharraf,
President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Hamid
Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,
Vladimir Rushailo, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the
Commonwealth of Independent States and Wilfrido V.Villacorta,
Deputy Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations as guests of the host country participated in the
meeting and made statements.
During the meeting, the heads of
state signed the Declaration on the Fifth Anniversary of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Statement of Heads
of Member States of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation On
International Information Security, approved a new version of
the regulations of the SCO Secretariat and a cooperation
programme of SCO members on combating terrorism, separatism,
extremism from 2007 to 2009, adopted a series of resolutions
concerning personnel arrangement and the structure of the
Organisation, and agreed that Mr. Bolat K. Nurgaliev (from
Kazakhstan) will be the Secretary-General of the Organisation
from 2007 to 2009.
The plenipotentiary
representatives of member states of the Organisation signed an
agreement on the procedure of organising and holding joint
anti-terrorism actions in the territories of SCO member
states, an agreement on identifying and severing infiltrating
channels of people engaged in terrorism, separatism and
extremism in the territories of SCO member states, an
intergovernmental educational cooperation agreement of SCO
member states, a resolution of the SCO Business Council, and
an action plan of SCO Interbank Association member banks on
supporting regional economic cooperation.
The
heads of state met with the participants of the Inaugural
Meeting of the SCO Business Council and attended the opening
ceremony of the Art Festival of SCO member states.
In a
constructive and cordial atmosphere, the Council of Heads of
State summarised the achievements and experience of the
Organisation in its growth, discussed pressing issues and
tasks in the work of the SCO, and had an in-depth exchange of
views on a wide range of international issues of common
interest.
The heads of state pointed out
that the Organisation has done a remarkable job in
implementing the agreement reached in the Astana Summit held
in the summer of 2005, and this has created favorable
conditions for the Organisation to conduct more robust
multilateral cooperation in various areas.
At
the meeting of the Council of Heads of State, the Resolution
on strengthening the role of the SCO Secretariat in the
structure of the Organisation and changing the title of the
head of the Secretariat into Secretary-General was adopted.
This shall instill new vigor into the work of the Organisation
and enhance the efficiency of the SCO’s permanent body in
fulfilling tasks of growing importance. In accordance with
this principle, the Council of National Coordinators of SCO
Member States shall hold consultation and make decision by the
end of 2006 on the institutional reform of the SCO Secretariat
and the rotation of staff for the SCO’s permanent body in a
way that ensures balance and the continuity of its work.
Having taken note of the fact that
SCO member states have reached consensus on the principled
position of formulating a mechanism for the Organisation to
adopt measures in response to developments that threaten
regional peace, stability and security, the heads of state
believed that the SCO Secretariat should draft the relevant
agreement as soon as possible, to ensure that all measures
under the mechanism are law-based.
It
remains the top priority of the Organisation to combat the
threats posed by terrorism, separatism and extremism as well
as illegal drug trafficking, which have not diminished but
aggravated in scale and degree. Various forms of joint
anti-terrorism military exercises within the territories of
the SCO member states involving, among others, their defense
authorities, will help enhance the efficiency of member
states’ joint anti-terrorism operations. The heads of state
spoke positively of the work done by the SCO Regional
Antiterrorist Structure, and were convinced that this
Structure has the potential to better perform its duties and
carry out its mission.
The heads of state pointed out
that there is already a legal basis and an organisational
structure for carrying out economic cooperation. The
implementation of the Programme of Multilateral Trade and
Economic Cooperation among SCO Member States and its Action
Plan has begun. To establish the SCO Business Council and the
Interbank Association will greatly enhance the development of
economic cooperation of the Organisation. The credit fund of
US$ 900 million provided by China will help expand regional
cooperation. All member states agreed to give priority to
cooperation in the fields of energy, information technology
and transportation, which have entered the phase of carrying
out pilot projects and is of special significance for
deepening economic cooperation within the SCO framework.
The
heads of state expressed their satisfaction with the progress
made in areas of multilateral cooperation, i.e. environmental
protection, culture, education and sports. They were also
happy to see that the SCO Forum had begun functioning. The
heads of state emphasised that the progress would be
increasingly significant for enhancing mutual understanding
among member states and conducting non-governmental exchanges
within the SCO framework.
The heads of state expressed full
support for the agreement (the SCO Parliamentary Initiative)
signed at the Meeting of Parliament Speakers of SCO Member
States held in Moscow on 30 May 2006, believing that the
agreement is a good innovating action to consolidate the
Organisation and develop the interparliamentary relations
among the member states.
The heads of state considered that
as the international situation evolves and the SCO becomes
more dynamic, it is necessary to strengthen the Organisation’s
public information so as to create a public opinion favorable
for its development. The SCO Secretariat should coordinate the
drafting of specific proposals on this matter.
Threats of a military-political,
criminal or terrorist nature to information security
constitute common challenges for all member states that need
to be dealt with through prompt joint measures. The experts’
panel was entrusted with the task of producing a long-term
plan of action for the maintenance of information security
before the next Summit in 2007, including ways of solving this
problem within the SCO framework.
In light of the SCO’s lofty
purposes and long-term interests and in pursuance of the
declaration on the fifth anniversary of the SCO, the heads of
state instructed the Council of National Coordinators to
conduct consultations on concluding a multilateral legal
document on long-term neighborly and amicable cooperation
within the SCO framework.
The SCO will try to expand
cooperation among member states in the international arena in
various forms and by various means. It will hold regular
consultations with observers and international organisations
concerned. This is fully applicable to the SCO-Afghanistan
Contact Group which is already functioning.
The
heads of state pointed out with satisfaction that the
initiative endorsed by the Council of Heads of State in
Tashkent 2004 on establishing cooperative relations among
international organisations in the Asia Pacific was warmly and
widely received. They welcomed the signing of cooperation
documents between the SCO and the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC). They
reiterated that the SCO is ready to forge similar ties with
other international organisations and financial institutions
on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
The
SCO Secretariat should, together with the Executive Committee
of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure, closely follow
the implementation of cooperation documents signed between the
SCO and other organisations and energetically promote concrete
cooperation with the observers.
The heads of state also entrusted
the Council of National Coordinators to make recommendations
on the procedure of SCO membership enlargement. This procedure
should fully conform to the purposes and goals set forth in
the Charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ensure
the effectiveness of all treaties that form the legal basis of
the SCO, help strengthen its unity and guarantee the
applicability of the principle of consensus to consultations
on all matters and at all levels of SCO.
The
next meeting of the Council of Heads of State will be held in
Bishkek in 2007. The Kyrgyz Republic will assume the SCO
presidency next year.
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