SCO, CIS, CSTO plan to hold conference on security in Central Asia

MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. The SCO, CIS and CSTO plan to hold a conference on security in Central Asia and the situation in Afghanistan at the end of the year, SCO Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev told TASS. "We are developing cooperation in a trilateral format, involving the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). On September 3 last year, we signed a roadmap for this trilateral interaction in Beijing. In line with the roadmap, we plan, for instance, to hold a conference on security in Central Asia and the situation in Afghanistan at the end of the year," Yermekbayev said on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum of CIS Member States. He added that the SCO has cooperated with the CIS for about 20 years. "Last year, the SCO was granted an observer status in the CIS. It was a great result of our joint work," Yermekbayev stressed. The SCO secretary general said that the CIS and SCO hold regular meetings of the high and executive officials of the two organizations. He noted that the SCO - CIS Counterterrorist Forum is scheduled for this year, and the specialized institutions, the CIS Anti-Terrorist Center and the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, actively interact. On October 10 last year, at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State to the CIS in Dushanbe, the decision was made to grant the SCO the status of an observer in the Commonwealth. This status gives the right to participate in and speak at the meetings of the Commonwealth’s supreme and sectoral bodies upon invitation by the presiding party, not only taking part in the discussion and adoption of decisions by these bodies. It also implies an expansion of cooperation between the permanent executive structures of both organizations.