Secretary-General of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation addresses OSCE

The Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Dmitry Mezentsev, addressed the OSCE Permanent Council on 18 July 2013.

He outlined the SCO’s main goals, mechanisms and principles of work, and spoke about the challenges the region faces, including terrorism and threats emanating from Afghanistan such as the illegal narcotics trade. He stressed that the SCO was open to co-operation with any interested partners to tackle these threats.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is an intergovernmental organization founded in 2001. Five of its six members (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with the exception of China) are also OSCE participating States.

The Permanent Council is a main decision-making body of the 57-country OSCE. It meets weekly in Vienna to discuss developments in the OSCE area and to make appropriate decisions.