Tashkent summit proposes an SCO Business Council and Development Fund

At the Beijing meeting, heads of government adopted a long-term programme for multilateral economic cooperation. It named transport, trade and investment as fields for coordination and imagined a...

The trade and economic programme prioritized practical steps toward an enabling environment for trade and investment. It reveals the SCO’s aspiration to complement security cooperation with...

The Secretariat began work as the organization’s permanent administrative body. This gave the SCO continuity between annual summits and expanded its capacity to coordinate decisions, though it...

The permanent executive body of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure began operating in Tashkent. The institutional move made security coordination more continuous and placed a central SCO body in...

At the Tashkent summit, leaders addressed counterterrorism alongside trade, investment, transport and other cooperation areas. They described the SCO as an equal partnership and not a bloc. This...

The Tashkent Declaration called for environmental protection and rational use of water resources to enter the organization’s cooperation agenda. This acknowledged that Central Asian security also...

The declaration argued for a global counterterrorism system centered on the United Nations and for prevention as well as response. This framing resisted unilateral security hierarchies, but it did not...

The Tashkent Declaration expressed interest in a peaceful, united Afghanistan and supported international cooperation on security, reconstruction and drug trafficking. Afghanistan was treated as...

The member states proposed a wider network among Asia-Pacific multilateral organizations, including through agreements and observer relations. The proposal reflected an ambition for South-South and...

The SCO granted Mongolia observer status by Decision No. 12 of the Council of Heads of State, creating a formal channel for participation without full membership. The status illustrates how the...