SCO and UN to hold a high-level special event in New York on 19 November

On 19 November 2019, a high-level special event "UN-SCO: Cooperation aimed at strengthening peace, security and stability and at preventing the merger of terrorism with organised crime and its financing through drug trafficking" will take place at the UN Headquarters in New York. The event will be held in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution of 30 August 2019 on the development of UN-SCO ties to strengthen dialogue, cooperation, coordination and the SCO's constructive role in securing peace and sustainable development, as well as to promote the development of regional cooperation and strengthen good-neighbourly relations. The event follows the 25 September 2019 ministerial meeting on cooperation between the UN and regional and subregional organisations, focusing on the role of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which Russia chaired.

The high-level special event will be organised by Russia, which is presiding in the SCO in 2019 and 2020, with the help of its Permanent Mission to the UN, the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the SCO Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO RATS).

The goal of the event is to hold an in-depth discussion on the development of ties between the SCO and the UN and its agencies specialising in these matters. The results of the upcoming discussion should help boost practical cooperation between the two organisations.

Speeches at the event will be delivered by the UN Secretary-General, a high-ranking Russian representative, the SCO Secretary-General, the Director of the SCO RATS Executive Committee, the heads of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, plus ambassadors and permanent representatives of the SCO member states to the UN. Delegates from the SCO observer countries and dialogue partners, as well as from the other UN member states and international and regional organisations, are invited to join in the discussion at the open session of the meeting.