Kyrgyz President: SCO to Sign Major Pacts Next Month

6 July 2007: Almaty ( Xinhua)

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Friday that a host of major pacts will be signed during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek next month.

The six members of the SCO -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- have pledged to enhance security, trade, military, judicial and cultural cooperation.

Krygyzstan currently holds the presidency of the SCO and Bakiyev said his country was committed to boosting the organization's international profile and its role in maintaining regional and global security and stability.

He said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) do not duplicate, but rather complement each other.

The CSTO groups Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The organizations have the goal of safeguarding regional security in common but they do not share all of the same goals, Bakiyev was quoted by Kyrgyzstan's Kabar news agency as saying.

The SCO and the CSTO share similar views on fighting international terrorism and both call for a unified security spacein Central Asia, he said.

Kyrgyzstan will also use its membership of the CSTO to propose measures to meet new challenges and threats and cooperate with law enforcement agencies of other member states, Bakiyev said.

Link: Xinhua