President Hu Jintao will begin a three-nation tour to
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia August 14-18, to attend the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit (SCO) and observe the SCO
joint anti-terrorism military drill in Russia, the Foreign Ministry
said yesterday.
The seventh SCO summit will be held in Bishkek, capital of
Kyrgyzstan on August 16. Heads of states of the six members and
four observers are expected to participate in the conference.
Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said the treaty on long-term friendship
and cooperation among SCO members - Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - is a key document to be signed
during the summit.
Since China has signed similar bilateral treaty with all the
member countries, a treaty signed by all the member states will
further strengthen the understanding and trust among the six
nations, Chen Yurong, an expert with China Institute of
International Studies, told China Daily.
The fact that China has been actively involved in SCO also
reflects one of its most important foreign policies - maintaining
friendly relations with neighboring countries, Chen said.
"If you don't have good neighbors, you don't have a secure home.
That is why China and other member states insist that SCO's
principles should be partnership, equality, non-alliance and
openness."
Issues such as facilitating cultural exchanges among the SCO
member states will also be discussed at the upcoming summit, the
Culture and Information Minister of Kyrgyzstan Sultan Rayev told
the KABAR news agency recently.
The discussion "will bring closer together the SCO members
through culture and art," Rayev said.
The SCO was founded in 2001 in Shanghai and is guided by the
principles of partnership, non-alliance, mutual trust, respect and
equality to the diversity of cultures.
(China Daily August 8, 2007)
