On 19 September 2023, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming met with UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua in New York during High-Level Week at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly and an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of Irregular SCO Countries.
The sides exchanged opinions on cooperation in economic and social development.
Zhang Ming noted that economic and social recovery, security and stability in the SCO region played an important role in promoting global development. The member states are making considerable efforts to consolidate the organisation and to achieve the goals on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. SCO-UN collaboration in this sphere has great significance. The SCO praises the UN’s greater role in addressing regional and global issues.
Li Junhua described the main functions of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and its work. He noted that the UN attached great significance to strengthening its contacts with the SCO countries in economic and social development. He called for drafting cooperation plans between both organisations; such plans should aim to unlock the potential of this cooperation still further and to fill it with practical content in the interests of the SCO countries’ development.