Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – Today, the XIX session of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Forum is taking place in Tashkent under the chairmanship of the Uzbek side. The Forum is dedicated to the theme "The Role of the SCO in New Conditions: Uniting Efforts for the Sake of General Security, Stability, and Prosperity."

Addressing the event with a welcoming speech, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Min emphasized the organization’s achievements.

As noted by the SCO representative, "over more than 20 years of its development, the SCO has evolved from a regional mechanism for meetings of heads of states into the largest comprehensive international organization."

Furthermore, he pointed out, the number of members of the "SCO family" is growing. "At the upcoming SCO summit in Astana next month, a decision will be made on Belarus’s accession to the SCO, thus reaching a historic two-digit breakthrough in the number of SCO member states," Zhang Min announced.

Speaking about the prospective areas of cooperation within the Organization, Zhang Min noted that "the SCO pays attention not only to ‘high-level’ tasks such as politics, diplomacy, peace, development, and security but also to topics ‘close to the people’ such as tourism, sports, and waste management."

According to him, the aforementioned achievements are compelling evidence that the "Shanghai Spirit" corresponds to the common interests of member states, the original goal of the Organization to maintain security and stability, and to ensure sustainable development. "SCO cooperation will only strengthen," he assured.

At the same time, the SCO Secretary-General separately highlighted the activities of the SCO Forum. According to his statement, "over its 19 years of existence, the SCO Forum has become the most authoritative consultative and expert mechanism of the Organization."

Moreover, he stated that the topics under discussion at today’s Forum hold significant practical and long-term value for the development of the SCO in a new era.

More than 40 experts from 10 countries are participating in the event organized by the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, including a representative delegation of national research centers of SCO member states, specialists from observer states and dialogue partners of the SCO, as well as the leadership of the SCO Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS).