Dushanbe, 04.11.2016. /NIAT “Khovar”/. Prime Ministers from the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) pledged on Thursday to enhance their pragmatic cooperation in various areas, according to Xinhua.

The 15th prime ministers’ meeting of the SCO concluded Thursday in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan with a Joint Declaration that emphasizes the need to promote pragmatic cooperation in such fields as financing, trade, energy and infrastructure.

«Deepening cooperation within the SCO serves the overall interests of the entire region», according to the declaration issued after the one-day meeting.

The prime ministers of the six countries, Tajikistan, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, stressed in the declaration that all member states should strive to implement the agreements reached in the SCO Tashkent summit in 2016 and in the 14th prime ministers’ meeting in Zhengzhou.

The next prime ministers’ meeting of the SCO will be held in Russia in 2017. Regular meetings mechanism among the SCO prime ministers was set up in September 2001.

The SCO, established in 2001, is a regional political, economic and security organization that groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as full members.

India and Pakistan signed the SCO’s Memorandum of Obligations in June, kick-starting the process of their accession into the group, which also has a number of observers and dialogue partners.