At the international conference in New Delhi on “SCO: Reunification and Renewal”, foreign experts highly appreciated the initiatives of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, announced during the Samarkand Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in September 2022.

The forum was attended by the heads of diplomatic missions, as well as experts from leading think tanks of member states, observer countries and partners of the SCO, including Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Belarus, Iran, Mongolia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Maldives.

Deputy Director of the International Institute for Central Asia Batyr Tursunov noted that the SCO countries must continue to adhere to the principles of consensus, non-bloc and openness to constructive dialogue and international cooperation. The importance of maintaining the status of the “geographic core” of the organization for Central Asia against the backdrop of the expansion of the “SCO family” was emphasized.

At the opening of the conference, the special importance of “spreading the spirit of cooperation and partnership” to the observer countries and dialogue partners of the SCO was noted. According to Indian experts, “this will help to promote the idea of the “Samarkand Spirit” put forward by the President of Uzbekistan.

As noted, the “Samarkand Spirit” is akin to the Indian spirit “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, which means “the world is one family”. The SCO should become a platform for interaction and support for each other in the Eurasian space”.

Foreign experts also emphasized the important role of the Joint Appeal of the SCO Heads of State to Youth and the Action Program for its implementation, adopted at the initiative of the Leader of Uzbekistan at the SCO Summit in China’s Qingdao in 2018. The implementation of this initiative is more important than ever in preventing the younger generation of the large SCO family from falling under the influence of various destructive ideologies.

The conference is organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs as part of India’s first SCO Presidency.

G.Khonnazarov, UzA