Today, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, within the framework of a working visit to Tajikistan, took part in a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a guest of honor.
The SCO was established in 2001 and is an intergovernmental international organization operating on a permanent basis. Its supreme body is the Council of Heads of State, which meets annually. Currently, the SCO includes India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. A number of states have the status of observer and dialogue partner at the SCO.
With all the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Turkmenistan is united by traditionally friendly relations based on mutual goodwill and historically established ties.
Thus, Turkmenistan considers the development of relations with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as one of the priority vectors of its foreign policy strategy, where great importance is also attached to interaction with authoritative regional and international structures.
Before the start of the summit, the head of Turkmenistan held meetings with the leader of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and President of Iran Seyed Ebrahim Raisi.
Then President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov went to the Novruz Palace, which became the venue for the SCO summit dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Organization. A ceremony of official joint photographing of heads of state and delegations took place here.
The summit in Dushanbe was held with the participation of the leaders of the Organization's member states - President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, as well as leaders of a number of states with observer status with the SCO, in including President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Iran Seyed Ebrahim Raisi and President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh (online).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin took part in the online meeting.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the summit participants via digital communication. The meeting was also attended by the heads of a number of regional organizations, including the CIS, ECO and others.
Opening the meeting and warmly welcoming the audience, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon gave the floor to the forum participants.
For Turkmenistan, relations with the SCO are an important area of the strategy of international partnership, which is based on a commitment to a broad geographic and structural diversification of our external relations, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said speaking at the summit.
At the end of the program of his working visit to the Republic of Tajikistan, the head of Turkmenistan went to the International Airport of the city of Dushanbe, from where he left for his homeland.