DUSHANBE, 08.08.2017. /NIAT “Khovar”/. On August 6, 2017, Manila, Philippines, hosted an official meeting between the SCO and ASEAN Secretaries-General, which included a detailed exchange of views on key regional and global issues, development and expansion of relations based on the Memorandum of Mutual Understanding between the ASEAN and the SCO secretariats. It was posted today in the official page of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Facebook.
It is reported that SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov warmly congratulated ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh on the 50th anniversary of his organisation, saying that “ASEAN’s history is one of success based on the member-states’ invariable aspiration to strengthen mutual understanding, neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation in Southeast Asia and beyond,” adding that “since 2005, SCO and ASEAN have been partner organisations whose aims and objectives in a many areas of multi-level cooperation coincide.”
“ASEAN and SCO are achieving practical results in their responsibility regions and are playing a key role in forming an architecture of indivisible security and equal cooperation in this most rapidly developing part of the world,” Alimov pointed out.
The ASEAN Secretary-General stressed for his part that ASEAN and SCO were addressing similar objectives and aimed at achieving important joint development goals. “There are broad prospects for expanding relations between the two organisations,” Mr Minh said.
According to the SCO and ASEAN secretaries-general, intensifying SCO-ASEAN interaction will contribute to successful solution of common tasks and will benefit the nations living within the organisations’ space. SCO Secretary-General Alimov wished ASEAN and all its member states prosperity and the Southeast Asian nations, good fortune and wellbeing.
The SCO-ASEAN relations were formalised in 2005 with the signing of the Memorandum of Mutual Understanding by the two secretariats.
At the invitation of Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines Alan Peter Cayetano, a SCO delegation led by Secretary-General Rashid Alimov is attending the ministerial meetings and ceremonies dedicated to the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, in Manila between 5-8 August. The events programme includes meetings, forums and talks on topical regional and global problems. The highlights of the programme organised in Manila on August 5-8 by the Philippines as the current ASEAN Chair were ceremonies and celebrations dedicated to ASEAN’s 50th anniversary, attended by high-ranking representatives of ASEAN dialogue partners and partner organisations.