The forthcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand is designed to demonstrate that the values of friendship, cooperation and mutual trust still exist. Kirill Barsky, Ambassador-at-Large for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Russia's Senior Official in APEC, said this on Tuesday at a session of the 7th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) "The Role of the SCO in a Changing World".
"From the very beginning, the SCO model has been laid as a prototype of the multipolar world. <...> This year we have held many events within the SCO, which will culminate with a summit in Samarkand, to be held in just two weeks," Barsky noted.
"This summit will also be unusual, as well as all that is happening around us, because it is designed to show against the backdrop of destructive processes that are now being developed in international relations by the United States and its Western allies, that there can be another world, that someone destroys the international system, and someone strengthens it, creates it on the basis of a regional approach. Against the background of this unbridled arrogance that now prevails in the West, [it is meant] to show that the values of friendship, cooperation, mutual trust are still alive and have prospects," the diplomat added.
For his part, Rashid Alimov, who served as secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in 2016-2018, speaking by video link, said that the SCO summit in Samarkand will be extremely important not only for the future of the region, but also for the future of world peace and international security.
Unique opportunity
Barsky stressed that Russia views the SCO as a kind of unique opportunity to strengthen security and cooperation both in the region and more broadly. "The SCO has already occupied a unique niche in the international division of labor, is a reliable pillar of security on our continent, deals with a wide range of issues, and that range is growing," the ambassador added. - "It is very important that economic cooperation is increasingly coming to the forefront of the agenda of security, foreign policy cooperation, and the fight against a wide range of threats. Here, of course, we have a lot to do, because the topic is very important. Practically all SCO member states demand that economic issues should be given more prominence, and, most importantly, that the effect of such cooperation should be greater."
At the same time, he stressed the importance of not going to extremes. "Still, integration projects should play a key role in the economic agenda of our Eurasian space. For us, the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, it's primarily the EEU and the initiative of the Greater Eurasian Partnership," he explained.
Barsky also expressed hope that in the upcoming years we will see closer cooperation between the SCO and the EEU. "The SCO as one of the platforms for the formation of the Greater Eurasian Partnership can still make itself known," the diplomat added.
The ambassador also pointed out the importance of the SCO "not to close in on itself, but on the contrary, to play the role of the initiator of broad cooperation and the formation of partnership regional network."
According to Barsky, "today Eurasia is one of the most promising regions of the world, where there will be security, economic development, good neighborliness, friendship and cooperation."
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Akishin Vyacheslav/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS