Shanghai hosts SCO Secretary-General’s meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan

On 6 November 2019, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev on the sidelines of the 2nd China International Import Expo.

The officials discussed how to expand mutually beneficial cooperation between the SCO and Azerbaijan, its dialogue partner.

The SCO Secretary-General stressed the need for greater collaboration in such fields as the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, as well as trade, the economy, culture, transport communications, digitalisation, e-trade, and tourism.

Vladimir Norov said that the Joint Communique of the 18th meeting of the SCO Heads of Government Council (Tashkent, 2 November 2019) called on the observer states as well as the dialogue partners to be more active in using the opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation within the SCO. He also noted the importance for them to join practical cooperation mechanisms under the Roadmap for promoting the SCO Secretariat's interaction with the observer states and dialogue partners as approved by the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers at its meeting in Bishkek on 22 May 2019.

He also mentioned the fact that the SCO member states were considering whether the observer states and dialogue partners could join SCO agreements and treaties. After they take the decision, a list of agreements will be sent to these countries. At the same time, the Republic of Azerbaijan can now already start acceding to the SCO Agreement on Creating Favourable Conditions for International Motor Carriage (Dushanbe, 12 September 2014). The Republic of Belarus, a SCO observer state, has already joined the agreement.

Mr Norov informed Mr Mustafayev that last year's SCO Summit which took place in Qingdao had approved the Joint Appeal of the Heads of the SCO Member States to the Youth and a programme for its implementation. Every year, the SCO Secretariat organises an interactive game, SCO Model, for university and senior school students to act on these documents. Many universities in SCO member countries have picked up the practice.

Mr Norov suggested that universities in Azerbaijan run the game, SCO Model, among their students and thus promote the SCO's best practices.

He also praised the efficient use of people's diplomacy to strengthen friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation between the SCO Family countries, citing the example of the China SCO Committee for Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation, the SCO Centre of People's Diplomacy in Uzbekistan, and public

organisations in other countries. He pointed to the importance of Azerbaijan's public organisations joining in.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev made a particular note of the successfully developing relations between his country and the SCO.

He stressed that Azerbaijan was interested in promoting cooperation with the SCO and would make its contribution to all fields of cooperation of mutual interest. He praised their political cooperation and the implementation of various cultural projects. He also thanked the SCO for its active involvement as an observer in Azerbaijan's 2018 presidential elections and the SCO Secretariat hosting in 2018 the Day of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan sponsored by the Heydar Aliyev Fund.

Mr Mustafayev reacted positively to Mr Norov's proposals to step up their mutually beneficial cooperation in specific projects and spheres of interaction.