The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states will
share information, especially on security issues, and provide
active support to China to ensure a smooth 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, SCO
Secretary-General Bolat Nurgaliev said yesterday.
"The Beijing Olympics will help strengthen friendship among
nations," he said. "Also, it would provide good experience for
Russia when it hosts the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in
2014."
The member states will take a series of steps to expand their
areas of the cooperation into education, culture and health, he
said. A university program is on agenda to offer people in the SCO
member states a better chance to learn each other's languages,
history, literature and modern politics.
Also, the SCO member states will "focus on balancing the
relationship among the main energy providing, consuming and
exporting countries," Nurgaliev said.
According to B. Lynn Pascoe, under-secretary-general for
political affairs of the UN, the heads of state of the six SCO
members discussed the world body's relations with regional
organizations and the proposal to set up a UN office in Central
Asia during the Bishkek summit.
Last week, Pascoe said the UN had made a good start on working
on ties with the SCO, and that China and Russia were the main
driver of the organization, according to the UN website.
"The SCO is a multinational cooperative organization, aimed at
strengthening peace and economic development in Central Asia," Chen
Yurong, an expert with China Institute of International Studies,
said on Tuesday.
(China Daily August 23, 2007)
