Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will take part in the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Tuesday. The event will be held under the chairmanship of China online.
Agenda of the meeting
According to the press service of the Russian cabinet, the heads of government will discuss topical issues of cooperation within the SCO. For instance, they will discuss deepening of trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation in view of the results of the SCO summit in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in September. The agenda includes a program of multilateral trade and economic cooperation before the year 2035. A special attention will be paid to the development of conceptual and program documents in the field of trade and investments, "smart agriculture", artificial intelligence, industry, energy, high technologies. The parties will identify further steps to translate these agreements into practice.
The heads of government plan to discuss increasing the share of national currencies in mutual settlements. They will also consider concrete steps for implementation of the road map approved by the heads of government of the SCO member states.
The participants of the meeting will also receive reports from heads of the standing bodies of the organisation - the Business Council and the Interbank Association. It is expected to consider a number of financial and organisational issues and approve the SCO budget for 2023.
Agreed positions of the member states will be reflected in the final Joint communiqué.
Participants of the meeting
The meeting will be chaired by Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang. Heads of Governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will also attend the meeting. India and Pakistan will be represented by their foreign ministers. Observer states Belarus, Iran and Mongolia will also join. At the invitation of the Chinese side, Turkmenistan will participate in the meeting.
The meeting will also be attended by the SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming, Director of the Executive Committee of the Organization's Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure Ruslan Mirzaev, heads of the SCO Business Council and Interbank Association, as well as representatives of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and other international and regional organizations.
This will be the first major foreign policy event organized by the PRC authorities since the conclusion of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was held from October 16 to 22.
Kyrgyzstan will chair the SCO Council of Heads of Government next year.
Expectations of the meeting
As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian noted the day before, since its founding, the SCO has promoted cooperation among member countries in various fields and "has played an important role in maintaining security and stability in the Eurasian space."
"The world is facing challenges and pandemics unprecedented in a century, as well as a slowing economy. The hope for the countries of the region is that the SCO will be able to demonstrate a strong sense of responsibility and make an even greater contribution to protecting national security and development interests," he pointed out.
The diplomat stressed that during the meeting, the Chinese premier intends to discuss with his counterparts the implementation of the results of the SCO summit in Samarkand, deepening cooperation within the organization in security, economy and culture, as well as consider various options for mutually beneficial interaction.
"We are confident that the upcoming meeting will play an active role in helping states respond to all risks and challenges, promote economic and development recovery and benefit the states and peoples of the region," Zhao Lijian stressed.
India's chairmanship
As a result of the SCO summit in Samarkand in September, Uzbekistan handed over the presidency in the organization to India. New Delhi continues to take an active part in various SCO events as well as other formats of multilateral cooperation within the organization, the Indian foreign ministry said on the eve of the meeting.
At the SCO summit in Samarkand in September, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that New Delhi was in favor of developing cooperation within the SCO and proposed a number of initiatives for the country to unite. The Indian prime minister suggested creating a new group in the SCO on startups and innovations to share experience in this area of entrepreneurship. Modi also noted that India is in favor of greater cooperation on traditional medicine within the association and suggested holding a millet festival.
History of the SCO
The SCO is an international organization founded in 2001. The organization currently includes Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Another four countries - Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia - have the status of an observer state. In addition, several countries are partners in the dialogue: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Egypt, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
At the SCO summit in Samarkand on September 15-16 the leaders of the organization signed a memorandum about the obligations of the Iranian side in connection with joining the SCO, after which Iran will fulfill the relevant obligations and complete the official procedure of accession. Also at the summit began the process of registration of membership in the organization of Belarus.
In addition, it was decided in Samarkand to start the procedure of granting the status of dialogue partners to Bahrain, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from TASS