Presidents of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan gathered in St. Petersburg Friday for the second summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and are expected to adopt three key documents that chart the future course of development of the SCO.
The leaders will review the development of the SCO since its establishment in Shanghai a year ago. They will also exchange views on outstanding international and regional issues and sign three documents, namely the SCO Charter, an agreement on the establishment of a regional anti-terrorism agency, and a declaration of the SCO leaders.
The summit meeting is expected to further strengthen unity and coordination of the SCO, institutionalize it, promote cooperation to a wider sphere, and raise its international status, a spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier.
The spokesman said the establishment of SCO was a strategic choice of leaders of the six countries, for strengthening regional good-neighborly cooperative relations and maintaining peace, stability and development in the region and the world at large.
A series of ministerial meetings were held in the past 12 months in preparation for the summit, which included meetings of defense ministers, trade ministers and cultural ministers of the six countries.
(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2002)
