Moscow will make efforts to further consolidate the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Tuesday at a meeting of the association's Council of Heads of Government.
"Russia will provide the necessary support for the substantive content of trade and economic cooperation and further consolidation of the SCO," he assured.
In the final part of his speech, Mishustin separately thanked the representatives of Beijing for organizing the meeting.
"Kyrgyzstan is taking over the presidency of the Council of Heads of Government. I wish you, dear Akylbek Usenbekovich, successful and fruitful work," the Russian prime minister said to his Kyrgyz counterpart Akylbek Zhaparov.
The SCO is an international organization founded in 2001. The organization currently includes Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Four other countries - Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia - have observer status. In addition, several countries are dialogue partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Egypt, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Vadim Savitsky/TASS
Based on materials from TASS