Backgrounder: Prime ministers' meeting of SCO

The 10th prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is slated for Monday in Russia. The regular meeting mechanism among the prime ministers within the SCO framework was established in September 2001. The first meeting, held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, launched the multilateral economic and trade cooperation process among the six member states, namely China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. On Sept. 23, 2003, the second meeting of SCO prime ministers took place in Beijing, China. The premiers focused their talks on economic and trade cooperation. Six documents were signed at the end of the meeting, including the program of multilateral trade and economic cooperation of SCO member states, the memorandum on technically launching permanent institutions of the SCO and a joint communique of the prime ministerial meeting. The 2004 Bishkek meeting agreed that terrorism, separatism and extremism remained the major threats to the security and stability of the region, and called for closer bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the fight against these evil forces. Participants reaffirmed that to push forward regional economic cooperation was among the SCO's priorities and pledged to focus on cooperation projects in energy, transport, telecommunications and agriculture. After an action plan was approved for the program of multilateral trade and economic cooperation, which involved 127 projects covering 11 fields, the SCO has entered a stage of pragmatic cooperation with emphasis on security, trade and economy.