SCO foreign ministers holding first meeting in new format

Moscow is hosting the first meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries in the new format - the Council of Foreign Ministers (Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).

During the session, the ministers intend to thoroughly consider the work to implement the agreements reached at the St Petersburg summit on the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Particular attention will be paid to the setting up of a SCO Secretariat in Beijing and a headquarters of the Regional Antiterrorist Structure of the SCO in Bishkek.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev, who voiced the agenda, emphasized that the SCO "has come off as a regional organization." This organization still has to increase its efficiency and to learn to adequately address the challenges that exist nowadays in the international relations, he stressed.