On 6 April, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov met with a delegation of the China Daily multimedia information platform led by its Editor-in-Chief Zhou Shuchun.
Greeting the delegation, Vladimir Norov noted that 20 years ago heads of six countries — Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — wishing to tap the enormous potential of neighbourly relations, unity and cooperation between their states and peoples, declared the establishment of a major international organisation. After India and Pakistan joined the SCO it became the world's largest one. The interest of so many countries in becoming part of the SCO family indicates its growing international authority.
SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov pointed out that the organisation would mark its 20th anniversary in 2021. The SCO plan of priority activities for 2021 includes over 150 events. Since the beginning of the year the SCO held two meetings of national coordinators and a number of meetings based on the main cooperation mechanisms. The SCO Secretariat also marked International Women's Day and International Nowruz Day, and held the SCO Football Cup.
Vladimir Norov pointed out that China Daily's world readership exceeds 200 million. China Daily is the number one choice for the people who read about China in English and is rightly believed to be China' most influential English-language web portal. The newspaper plays an important role as an information exchange channel between China and the rest of the world.
The Secretary-General thanked the delegation for the efforts to cover the SCO's activities and made some proposals on expanding interaction between the SCO Secretariat and the China Daily editorial board. As a promising area of such interaction, he suggested speeding up the work of the SCO Press Club on coordinating joint steps for covering the SCO's activities.
Vladimir Norov also suggested publishing a special issue of Сhina Daily dedicated to the SCO's 20th anniversary and holding joint events in the domain of information analysis cooperation.
In turn, Сhina Daily Editor-in-Chief Zhou Shuchun thanked Mr Norov for the meeting and highly praised SCO efforts. He emphasised that the Organisation's influence as a universal multilateral mechanism is growing. Likewise its potential as a venue for resolving issues of security, economy, cultural and humanitarian cooperation in Eurasia was getting stronger.
The editor-in-chief supported Vladimir Norov's proposal on bringing out a China Daily issue on the SCO's 20th anniversary and stated his readiness to develop cooperation with the SCO Secretariat, including on such projects as China Watch Think Tank Forum and China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable.
In conclusion, the Secretary-General congratulated the delegation members on the upcoming 40th anniversary of China Daily and expressed confidence that this meeting will mark the start of major joint endeavours in the future.