DUSHANBE, June 15, Asia-Plus -- Leaders of the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) gathered in the China Wednesday for a two-day jubilee summit.  The leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and China marked five years since the regional security forum was founded in Shanghai in July 2001.

In an interview ahead of the summit, Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov said he expected SCO leaders to discuss anti-terrorism, extremism, separatism and drug trafficking.  He said Tajikistan had managed to resolve peacefully border disputes with China and could now focus on trade and economic ties.  "Tajikistan is interested in studying China''s experience in macroeconomic development and the use of new technologies in industry and services," Nazarov said.   

Under the chairmanship of the host, Chinese leader Hu Jintao, the SCO summit reviewed the five years of the organization''s activities, exchanged opinions on international and regional affairs and drew up plans for further development.  The leaders of the SCO member nations approved a concluding declaration of the jubilee summit and signed a number of documents.

 The Declaration, in particular, runs that the SCO member nations will render aid to one another in protecting basic positions to defend sovereignty, security and territorial integrity as well as efforts, made for this purpose.

The SCO countries will not permit to use their territories for inflicting damage on sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of other member states and will nip in the bud operations of organizations or groups in their territories, inflicting damage on the interests of the member states. They will not participate in alliances and associations, which can inflict damage on sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the member states.

Taking into account the above, the member states will get down to agreeing the question on concluding a multilateral legal document (within the SCO) on long-term good-neighborly relations, friendship and cooperation.

The Declaration also notes that “the SCO has a potential to play an independent role in maintaining stability and security in the zone of its responsibility”. In case of emergency events, jeopardizing peace, stability and security in the region, the SCO member states will immediately establish contacts and start consultations on a rapid joint response so as to defend, to the utmost extent, the interests of the Organization and its member states.  The member states will also study a possibility of establishing a mechanism within the SCO for warding off regional conflicts.

They also inked three decisions made by the Council of Heads of States - on the SCO Secretary General''s Office, a provision concerning the SCO''s secretariat and a program of cooperation between the member-states in fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism in 2007-2009.

The SCO leaders attended the signing of several agreements, such as the procedure for arrangements for and taking of joint anti-terrorist measures on the territories of the member-states, an agreement on cooperation in revealing and cutting off channels of the penetration of persons implicated in terrorist, separatist and extremist activities into the territories of the member-states, and intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of education.

The SCO approved a protocol on the results of the founding session of the Business Council, and a program of actions in support of regional economic cooperation between banks - members of the inter-bank association within the framework of this organization.

The SCO, founded in 2001 by Russia and China plus former Soviet Central Asian republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, originally dealt with security and confidence-building issues, but has broadened its priorities to include economic cooperation as well as transportation, disaster-relief, and cultural projects.