SCO PMs approve joint communique
( 2003-09-23 16:28) (Xinhua)
Prime ministers of the six Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members Tuesday signed a joint communique during their consultation in Beijing.
During their discussion, the prime ministers from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, focused on enhancing the SCO mechanism construction and economic and trade cooperation in a friendly and constructive atmosphere and reached wide-ranging consensus on concrete issues.
The prime ministers pointed out the SCO mechanism has been improved with cooperation in all fields enlarged and deepened. The SCO, drawing more attention from the international community, has become an important cooperation mechanism to keep peace and stability in central Asia, and push forward all members toward progress.
The successful SCO summit held in Moscow this May is of great significance to SCO development, the leaders said. Consensus and resolutions reached in the summit demonstrated that the SCO has entered a stage of overall development, and was an important guideline for SCO's coming work.
The prime ministers approved a multilateral economic cooperation program among the SCO members to strengthen economic and trade cooperation based on reciprocity and equality and to improve the environment for foreign investment.
Since the first SCO prime ministers' consultation in September 2001, all parties have done the work necessary to initiate economic cooperation within the SCO framework. The prime ministers believed under the current situation of a globalized economy and regional economic integration, that enhancing multilateral cooperation among SCO members is conducive to each member's economic development and the cohesiveness of the organization.
The prime ministers said the major task of the regional economic cooperation of SCO is to make bilateral and multilateral trade and investment more convenient. The SCO members will push forward multilateral cooperation in the fields of energy, information, telecommunications, the environmental protection, and natural resources, which include making and implementing projects of shared interests.
In the meantime, they will also abide by the long-term objective of regional economic cooperation defined in the multilateral economic cooperation program.
The prime ministers urged that SCO members further cooperate in transportation, improve transportation infrastructure construction, coordinate cross-border transport policies, establish international transportation channels, and draft relevant multilateral documents.
They also agreed on strengthening cooperation in disaster relief and prevention, including enhancing disaster relief information and technology exchange, as well as staff training. Therefore, all parties agreed to sign necessary multilateral documents.
The prime ministers stressed that as the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism still posed a serious threat to regional security, the SCO members will actively work to implement the Shanghai treaty in this regard and finalize the drafting of the anti-drug cooperative documents.
As reiterated by all parties, the SCO adopts an opening up policy, and is willing to carry out various dialogues and cooperation with other countries and international organizations according to the UN Charter.
The prime ministers also agreed to have the next regular meeting in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.
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