On September 16, the next summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will begin in Samarkand.
A number of multilateral and bilateral meetings are scheduled within the framework of the summit. Agreements aimed at strengthening economic-financial-investment and security cooperation between SCO member states are expected to be signed at these meetings.
Today, before the Samarkand summit, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s article entitled “dialogue and cooperation in an interdependent world” was published.
Kun.uz interviewed a political scientist Kamoliddin Rabbimov about the ideas and initiatives put forward in Mirziyoyev’s article.
Kun.uz: Mr. Kamoliddin, is it usual for the leaders of the host countries to write such articles before the SCO summits or is this something new? If there is news, what was the need of the article, and if there is no news, what is its difference from the previous ones?
Kamoliddin Rabbimov: First of all, it should be said that there is no such tradition within the SCO. Leaders of SCO member states do not always write articles before the summit.
The importance of the Samarkand summit is extremely high, because the SCO members did not sit around the table and talk for the past three years due to the coronavirus pandemic. Such a big meeting is taking place in Samarkand. In addition to member states of the organization, guest and observer states also participate in it. In general, we can say that this event is a summit that attracts the attention of the Earth today.
I think the article itself made a few good points. That is, the combination “Spirit of Samarkand” is used there. This emphasizes that the statehood of Uzbekistan sees global cooperation, not global competition, in the form of the SCO summit. The article emphasizes that today’s global community, apart from the competition between states and superpowers, has reached such a point that the lack of trust between them has intensified. Based on this, Uzbekistan says that if there is an opportunity, powerful countries should strive for cooperation, not competition. If the level of cooperation is not so high, the position is expressed that these countries should drag the region less into the competition between themselves.
In general, within the framework of the SCO global project, Uzbekistan emphasizes the development of global cooperation and friendship, and soft relations, not competition, not political or military blocs.
One can watch the full interview in the video above.
