Bishkek is currently hosting the 15th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Belarus represented by Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov. The key negotiation topics are deepening trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation and countering terrorism, as well as the implementation of the agreements reached by the Heads of State during the June summit in Tashkent. Attended by the Belarusian President, that was the first Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit where Minsk was represented as an observer. Belarus was the first European country to receive that status. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation considers Belarus to be the first state to open the way to Europe from Asia as the Belarusian President has urged to interact with the EAEU. In fact, most of the continent will get a real opportunity to piece together raw material resources, human capital and a huge domestic market capacity.
The six official SCO participants are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The six observer states are Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan.
The key objective of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is fighting against extremism, separatism and terrorism. Currently, the Organisation is chaired by Kazakhstan. Next June will see a SCO Heads of State summit in Astana.
