On 21 April, the SCO Secretariat hosted the sixth round of the Model SCO 2022 interactive game featuring schoolchildren from the General Secondary School of the Russian Embassy in China, including not only children of employees of Russian foreign missions in China, but also family members of employees of diplomatic missions of the SCO member states in Beijing, as well as officials of the SCO Secretariat. The schoolchildren simulated a meeting of the SCO Council of National Coordinators, from approving the agenda to agreeing the Joint Statement and signing the final communique. The simulation was held in Russian, Chinese, English and several national languages of the member states, with the translation into the SCO official languages done by the participants themselves.
When opening the game, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming stressed that holding such events regularly helped the younger generation to better understand the essence of political and diplomatic work, as well as the practice of multilateral talks and the importance of finding common ground even in the most difficult situations. He emphasised the organisation's focus on the implementation of various projects aimed at encouraging youth involvement in the SCO's life, including promoting youth entrepreneurship, improving their skills in IT, digital economy and e-commerce, expanding remote education with the SCO University's resources, and protecting the younger generation from the destructive influence of propaganda of terrorism, extremism, separatism, racial intolerance and other anti-values that antagonistically contradict the SCO philosophy.
Attending the game were Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov, who also delivered remarks, representatives of the member states at the SCO Secretariat, diplomats from the SCO embassies, and Secretariat officials.
After the game, the teaching staff of the Russian embassy school received certificates of merit from the SCO Secretariat, and schoolchildren received words of gratitude from the Secretariat for organising and participating in the Model SCO.
The Model SCO project is part of efforts to promote the youth policy on the SCO agenda, as stated in the Joint Address of the Heads of the SCO Member States to Youth adopted at the SCO summit in Qingdao in June 2018, and in the Dushanbe Declaration on the 20th Anniversary of the SCO adopted at the meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council in September 2021. It is an educational interactive game that simulates the activities of the SCO bodies/mechanisms for students of secondary and higher educational institutions of the SCO countries. The game gives participants an opportunity to study international relations and multilateral diplomacy, improve their communication and writing skills, and carry out negotiations and discussions. One of the main goals of the Model SCO is to encourage young people to take an interest in the activities of the Organisation.