Muhammad Asif Noor
Uzbekistan assumed the presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in September 2021 for one year. Uzbekistan took over this chairmanship of the organisation from Tajikistan. As a founder member and being the chair of SCO, Uzbekistan instilled a new spirit in the administrative and policy areas of an organization aimed at raising its potential and authority under the leadership and guidance of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Over the entire year, the country has planned to host important and impactful events in order to contribute towards overall SCO’s development, peace initiative for region and beyond. This year’s SCO Heads of State Council summit is scheduled to be held in Samarkand from 15-16. September 2022.
Vision leadership of President Mirziyoyev has played an instrumental role in this entire process of growth for SCO. During his speech at the SCO Summit of Heads of States in 2021, he has outlined the priorities and tasks that Uzbekistan will endeavor to accomplish. These important steps were to alleviate the dynamics of authority of SCO, ensuring peace and stability in the region where Afghanistan holds the center stage, poverty reduction and ensuring food security are few of the steps that were planned.
President Mirziyoyev further aspires to play a larger role in promoting intraregional trade, connectivity, and economic interdependence by removing the trade barriers, digitalizing costume procedures, and aligning technical regulations. These visionary steps, when materialized, are likely to increase the trade volume between the SCO member states including observer states and dialogue partners.
The President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed his honor for the trust placed by the organization and vowed to work for the growth of the organization. The Uzbek vision of SCO is to consolidate its strengths and increase its potential and authority for the promotion of peace, security, and stability in the region. Given the socio-economic challenges presented by a coronavirus, President Mirziyoyev reaffirmed his trust in SCO to take initiatives for poverty reduction and food security in the region.
Since Uzbekistan chairs the presidency of SCO, Uzbek President has very clear objectives to contribute to the organization internally and externally. The SCO Council of National Coordinators met earlier this year and reviewed the activities between the SCO members while calling for close coordination between other SCO stakeholders to make it inclusive such as Observer states and Dialogue Partners.
On the external front, the chair aspires to increase the role of SCO at the global level through continuous interaction with multilateral organizations for the purpose of peace, security, and development. Uzbekistan wants to expedite the activities at the organization because covid-19 restrictions have been largely removed.
The approach of Tashkent towards SCO is very innovative and proactive. Tashkent planned to organize more than 80 international events under the banner of SCO to promote intraregional trade and regional security. It further intends to expand the agency of the organization by introducing the mechanism for the development of digital technologies and innovation. But, it is worth mentioning here that Tashkent is not ignoring the cooperation on health given the pressing challenges of Covid-19. Uzbekistan further proposed to establish an Expert Forum on Information Security and create a position of goodwill ambassador.
There are multiple areas of cooperation between the SCO member states. Some of the areas are identified by Uzbekistan such as intergovernmental agreement on tourism and the development of regional infrastructure. Uzbek President is taking a personal interest in the political crisis in Afghanistan and called for a unified approach to support Kabul. Uzbekistan is preparing for the meeting called SCO-Afghanistan Format to deliberate on the pressing issues of Afghanistan to take resolving initiatives.
Uzbekistan, under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, is playing a very constructive role in the organization. He not only accelerated the interaction with Dialogue Partners and Observer states to realize the potential of SCO, but he also presented the vision of regional cooperation and the development of regional infrastructure. The ease of doing business, rapid transit potential, and raising prospects of trade in the region would contribute toward regional development, a shared future of mankind.
The year 2022 will be an active and busy year for Uzbekistan as apart from hosting the SCO Heads of the State meeting, the country will host the summits of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Organisation of Turkic States (OTS). In this upcoming summit of SCO, Iran will join as a permanent member of the organisation. President has also proposed to hold the economic forum of SCO in 2022 apart for adopting the SCO industrial cooperation program. This will further strengthen the entire aspiration of making SCO move towards integration
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev invited the delegates across the region to attend the meeting of SCO Heads of State Councils to be scheduled on September 15-16, 2022. The complete meeting plan includes 130 Ministerial meetings along with multiple expert meetings, technical forums, conferences, seminars, and symposiums.
The upcoming meeting of the Heads of State Council in Samarkand will also exchange many documents and agreements at the meeting to make the summit productive. At the end of the summit, India will take over the presidency of SCO from Uzbekistan for the next year 2022-23 for the first time. Uzbekistan has played a key role in transforming and making headways in developing cooperation mechanisms and opportunity for creating peace and harmony in the region and beyond.
The writer is Secretary General Pakistan SCO Friendship Forum