On 21 March 2019, at the SCO headquarters in Beijing, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov met with Nicholas Rosellini, UN Resident Coordinator in the People's Republic of China.
The SCO Secretary-General briefed the UN coordinator on the SCO's activities, objectives and goals and on the upcoming plans and principles known as the "Shanghai Spirit." He highlighted the SCO's cooperation with the UN's specialised institutions, pointing to the collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with which the SCO held a joint event on 14 March 2019 in Vienna.
Mr Norov also informed the UN representative about the prospects for improving SCO relations with other regional organisations that have similar mandates on fighting terrorism, crime, drug trafficking and cyberterrorism, including the ASEAN, the OSCE and Interpol.
Mr Rosellini highly praised the SCO's performance. He added that there is vast potential for SCO-UN cooperation. The Resident Coordinator stressed the need to strengthen and deepen the SCO's cooperation with relevant UN institutions and suggested holding a meeting with members of the China-accredited Representative Offices of the UN with a view to working out plans for interaction in areas of mutual interest.
The parties exchanged views on a wide range of issues on the international agenda, including Afghanistan.