¡¡¡¡TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said
here Thursday that China proposes that Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
focus its attention on security and economic issues.
¡¡¡¡Speaking at a press conference following the 2004 summit meeting of the
SCO, Hu said that practical cooperation will keep the SCO full of vitality as it
brings concrete interests and opportunities to SCO members and their people.
¡¡¡¡The Tashkent Declaration signed by the presidents of the six SCO members
Thursday declared that the SCO has finished its preliminary stage of
establishing an organization and has begun a new stage of full-range
cooperation.
¡¡¡¡"To realize that target, we must jointly fight the 'three forces' of
terrorism, separatism and extremism, deal with transnational threats and curb
drug smuggling to maintain national security and social stability of the SCO
members," Hu said.
¡¡¡¡Security has been a priority issue of the SCO that was founded by Russia,
China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001. The six
members adopted a joint convention on the fight against the three forces when it
was founded.
¡¡¡¡At the current meeting, the six countries adopted an agreement on
cooperation in fighting illegal dealing in drugs.
¡¡¡¡Hu stressed that the SCO should also focus its attention on economic
cooperation among members.
¡¡¡¡The SCO has decided to establish five specialized working groups concerning
e-commerce, customs, quality inspection, investment promotion and transportation
facilitation.
¡¡¡¡Hu said that five groups should start to work as soon as possible and put
forward proposals for closer economic cooperation of the members.
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