President Tokayev meets with SCO Foreign Ministers

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held a meeting with Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states. Opening the event, the Head of State expressed condolences over the tragic death of the President and the Foreign Minister of Iran. President Tokayev emphasized that the Foreign Ministers Council meeting is one of the most important platforms to address current issues within the SCO. To date, significant attention is being paid to preparations for the upcoming SCO Heads of State Summit in Astana, which will be dedicated to the theme ‘Strengthening multilateral dialogue – striving for sustainable peace and development’.

“Kazakhstan proposed the development of the SCO initiative On World Unity for a Just Peace and Harmony. The adoption of this document, as well as the Astana Declaration during the forthcoming summit, will, in our view, contribute to the consolidation of international efforts to resolve conflicts in various regions of the world. Further steps in reforming the SCO require special attention. The active participation of the member states in making specific decisions to improve the activities of our Organization is highly commendable,” said President Tokayev.

Also, the Kazakh President believes that the Organization’s ongoing focus should include cooperation in combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism. Moreover, modern relevant issues such as cyber threats and climate change require significant attention as well.

“Without urgent preventive measures, this problem could plunge our planet into a dramatic period of global natural disasters. Extreme weather conditions are becoming one of the main global challenges. In this regard, it is necessary to update the SCO approaches to combating natural disasters. This spring, Kazakhstan fully experienced the negative consequences of climate change,” added the Head of State.

To date, the SCO unites 10 Eurasian states, which collectively are home to nearly half of the world’s population and account for a quarter of the global GDP, as well as 15 percent of the world trade.