President of Kazakhstan Takes Part in SCO Summit
After the official welcoming ceremony, the Heads of States Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation held its meeting in narrow and expanded formats.
Kassym-JomartTokayev thanked the President of the Kyrgyz Republic SooronbayJeenbekov for the warm welcome and the high level organization of the Summit and expressed confidence that the decisions taken and the documents signed would help to deepen cooperation between the countries.
The Head of State stressed that the transformation of the international relations system necessitates new, more balanced and clear principles for the multilateral associations and, thus, he outlined what the main tasks of the SCO should be.
“First, there should be further strengthening of confidence, constructive dialogue and interaction in order to ensure security and cooperation in the SCO area. In this regard, the Action Plan for 2018-2022 should be fully implemented within the framework of the strategic SCO Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation," said the President of Kazakhstan.
Kassym-JomartTokayev noted the timeliness of the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on the “Three Dialogues" and in this context indicated the need to enhance the Organisation's international competitiveness by expanding and establishing full-fledged relations with key multilateral structures of Eurasia, such as the Eurasian Economic Union, ASEAN, BRICS and the European Union.
“Amidst slowdown in economic growth and financial instability in world markets, it is necessary to make a better use of the huge economic potential of the SCO. We believe that this will be facilitated by the eight-sided format of the Eurasian Financial Advisory Mechanism. The Memorandum signed today between the SCO Secretariat and the AIFC will tap into the unique innovative potential of the Astana International Financial Centre in the development of the financial system across the SCO countries," said the Head of State.
The President of Kazakhstan drew the participants' attention to security issues in the region. In his opinion, the terrorist attacks in the SCO partner country, Sri Lanka, this April confirmed the relevance of the Kazakh initiative to form the Global Antiterrorist Coalition under the auspices of the UN.
“The problem of terrorism manifests itself in the world wide web and requires additional efforts to ensure cybersecurity. The creation of the SCO Information Security Center would be an important contribution to the protection of the Organisation's information space. Taking into account the experience and specifics, the RATS SCO Council could have taken the main role in promoting this issue," suggested Kasym-JomartTokayev.
In addition, the Head of State dwelled on climate change and environmental protection and proposed the establishment of a permanent platform for cooperation in this area.
Concluding his speech, the President of Kazakhstan stressed that peacemaking was an important part of the country's foreign policy on strengthening international and regional security, and expressed gratitude to the SCO partners for supporting Kazakhstan's peacemaking initiatives within the UN.
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The Summit adopted and signed the following documents:
1. Press Release on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State Council Meeting;
2. Bishkek Declaration of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's Heads of State Council;
3. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation approving the Action Plan for 2019-2020 on the implementation of the Programme of Action for the SCO Anti-Drug Strategy for 2018-2023;
4. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation approving the Regulations of the SCO Heads of Region Forum;
5. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation approving the Concept of Cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Member States in Digitalisation and Information and Communications Technology;
6. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation approving the Programme for the Development of Interregional Cooperation of the SCO Member States;
7. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation approving the SCO Secretary-General's Report on the Organisation's activities over the past year;
8. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation approving the Report of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) Council on SCO RATS activities in 2018;
9. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation approving the Action Plan for the implementation of the Concept of Cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Member States in Environmental Protection for 2019-2021;
10. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);
11. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the World Tourism Organisation;
12. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC);
13. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations;
14. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the Secretariat of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE);
15. Decision of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on signing the Roadmap for Further Action of the SCO Afghanistan Contact Group;
16. Agreement between the governments of the SCO Member States on cooperation in the field of mass media;
17. Agreement between the relevant authorities of the SCO Member States on cooperation in physical fitness and sports;
18. Basic Action Plan for the development of cooperation of the SCO Member States in healthcare for 2019-2021;
19. Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the Astana International Financial Centre;
20. Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the World Tourism Organisation;
21. Memorandum of Understanding between the SCO Secretariat and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs;
22. Roadmap for Further Action of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group.