Two-day meeting of SCO Council of Heads of State to be held in
Dushanbe on 16 th & 17 th of this month

ISLAMABAD, (MANEND NEWS): The two-day meeting of the SCO
Council of Heads of State will be held in Dushanbe on 16th and 17th of
this month.
The SCO Heads of Government Council meets once a year to discuss
the organisation’s multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas,
to resolve current important economic and other cooperation issues.
Pakistan became a member of the Heads of State Council of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in its historical meeting of 2017 in
Astana.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent
intergovernmental international organisation, the creation of which
was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic
of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic,
the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of
Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed during the
St. Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in June 2002, and entered
into force on 19 September 2003. This is the fundamental statutory
document which outlines the organisation’s goals and principles, as
well as its structure and core activities.
The SCO’s main goals are as follows: strengthening mutual trust and
neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective
cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and
culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism,

environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to
maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and
moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational
new international political and economic order.
Proceeding from the Shanghai Spirit, the SCO pursues its internal
policy based on the principles of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality,
mutual consultations, respect for cultural diversity, and a desire for
common development, while its external policy is conducted in
accordance with the principles of non-alignment, non-targeting any
third country, and openness.