Moscow hosts first meeting of SCO Council of National Coordinators in 2020

On 11-14 February 2020, Russia chaired the year's first meeting of the SCO Council of National Coordinators in Moscow.

The meeting's agenda included about 50 items aiming to further expand diverse collaboration between SCO member states.

Meeting participants focused on preparations for the upcoming meetings of the main SCO bodies, including the SCO Heads of State Council Meeting, the SCO Security Council Secretaries Meeting and the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs Meeting in the Russian Federation in the first half of 2020, as well as the SCO Heads of Government Council Meeting in the Republic of India in the autumn of 2020.

They exchanged opinions on draft documents scheduled to be signed at the upcoming SCO Summit in St Petersburg. A number of expert meetings involving representatives of specialised ministries and agencies of the SCO member states for coordinating these documents are set to take place in the first half of 2020.

The national coordinators approved the 2020 Plan of SCO Main Events and the Programme of Cooperation between the SCO Foreign Ministries for 2020.

They discussed preparations for the meetings of defence, transport, education and agriculture ministers from SCO member states, meetings of heads of tourist and railway administrations, the SCO Heads of Region Forum, meetings of the SCO Business Council, the SCO University Coordinating Council, the Forum of University Rectors, the Education Week of the SCO Member States, the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, the International Women's Congress of the SCO and BRICS member states, the Congress of Academic and Business Circles: Development and Integration of Remote Territories of SCO Member States, conferences on security and sustainable development in the Greater Eurasia region and other events within the framework of Russia's SCO Presidency, due to take place in the Russian Federation.

The participants also exchanged opinions on holding the 7th Meeting of SCO Ministers of Justice in New Delhi and the Meeting of Supreme Court Chief Justices of the SCO Member States in Nur-Sultan in April and May 2020.

They reviewed other matters of current SCO activities, and the meeting's final protocol reflects specific agreements reached on these aspects.

A delegation of the SCO Secretariat headed by Deputy SCO Secretary-General Xie Xiaoyong attended the meeting.