On June 17, the International Institute for Central Asia hosted a conference on “Shanghai Cooperation Organization: From Central Asia to Eurasia”, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the SCO Charter.

The international conference was attended by national coordinators of the SCO member states, responsible persons of the Secretariat and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, leading experts of analytical structures of Central Asian countries, Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Belarus, and Azerbaijan, as well as representatives of ministries and agencies of Uzbekistan.

The parties considered issues of ensuring strategic stability and security, promoting regional cooperation in Central Asia by strengthening confidence-building measures between the SCO member states, as well as various concepts aimed at expanding geo-economic opportunities and overcoming geographic isolation.

The role of the Central Asian region in the formation of the SCO as a promising platform for strengthening interregional connectivity and its importance as a geographical core of the organization in the light of its transformation was noted.

The conference has become a useful platform for an open and constructive exchange of views between national coordinators, as well as representatives of research institutes of the SCO member states on practical cooperation in political, economic, and humanitarian cooperation, the fight against terrorism, and other areas.

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Gayrat Khonnazarov, UzA