The member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) do not bring issues and problems of bilateral relations for general discussion. Russian Presidential Envoy for the SCO and Ambassador at Large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bakhtiyer Khakimov told Russian journalists on Monday following his visit to Beijing.
"No international organization is devoid of, and objectively cannot exist without problems," Khakimov said. "The SCO unites states of different civilizations, religions and cultures, the peoples of which have a wealth of historical knowledge and traditional values. In the process of working together, of course, difficulties arise. But when we join forces, we find acceptable solutions, including based on the principles of consensus and not bringing bilateral differences to the SCO platform," he said.
The SCO is an international organization founded in 2001. It currently includes Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Four other countries - Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia - have observer status. In addition, nine countries are partners in the dialogue: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Egypt, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
At last year's Samarkand summit held on September 15-16, the leaders of the SCO countries signed a memorandum on Iran's obligations in connection with joining the SCO. Also at the summit the process of registration of Belarus as a member of the organization was initiated. In addition, it was decided to start the process of granting the status of a dialogue partner to Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: sco-russia2020.ru/Creative Commons 4.0
Based on materials from TASS