The future of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
depends on whether members can translate consensus into action and
plans into reality, President Hu Jintao
said in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.
"As long as we make implementation the focus of our future work
and seek concrete results in deepening and expanding cooperation
and realizing targets, the SCO will surely be full of vitality and
bear abundant fruit," Hu told an SCO summit.
The organization, founded in Shanghai in June 2001, comprises
China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Mongolia became an observer in 2004, and India, Iran and Pakistan
were accepted as observers at the current summit.
The development of the SCO has entered an important stage and
members should strive to translate the organization's potential
into actual results and deal with the challenges of complex
international and regional changes, said Hu.
"Without stability, there can be no talk of any development," Hu
said, urging member countries and the whole region to promote the
implementation of documents and agreements on fighting extremism,
separatism and terrorism, and conduct effective information
exchange and step up research on the establishment of emergency
mechanisms.?
On economic cooperation, Hu asked for more efforts to implement a
multilateral plan and work for the early establishment of a banking
union. He also called for exploring bilateral and multilateral
cooperation modes that involve both governments and enterprises.
Hu urged for contact and cooperation between the SCO and
international financial institutions to facilitate deeper economic
cooperation, and said China has decided to offer even more
preferential terms for the US$900 million-buyer's export credit
promised to other SCO members in Tashkent last year.
On human resource cooperation, Hu said members should boost
collaboration in culture, disaster relief, education, tourism and
media, adding that China would set aside a special fund to train
1,500 people from other member countries within the next three
years.
Hu said Central Asia, with its unique strategic location and
cultural heritage, plays an increasingly important role in world
affairs and that recent developments in the region have aroused
concern in the international community.
"Central Asian countries are the masters of the affairs of the
countries and the region," Hu said. "People of all Central Asian
countries are entitled to independently choose the roads of
development that conform to their actual conditions, and they have
the wisdom and capability to adequately handle their internal and
regional affairs."
An SCO declaration issued at the end of the summit said the
leaders of member states pledged continued support for the
international coalition's anti-terrorism operations in
Afghanistan.
However, as large-scale military operations against terrorism
have come to an end in Afghanistan, they said, it is necessary for
coalition parties to set a deadline for the use of member states'
facilities and for their military presence in these countries.
(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2005)
