Published : 2025-06-15
On June 15, 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was officially established.
The predecessor of the SCO was the "Shanghai Five" mechanism composed of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The founding members of the SCO also include Uzbekistan.
The total area of the founding members of the SCO reaches 30.1893 million square kilometres, accounting for about three-fifths of the Eurasian continent, with a population of 1.455 billion people, about one-quarter of the world's population.
The purpose of the SCO is to strengthen mutual trust and good-neighbourly friendship among the member states, encourage effective cooperation in political, economic, trade, scientific, technological, cultural, educational, energy, transportation, environmental protection, and other fields, and jointly work to maintain and ensure regional peace, security, and stability.
At the same time, the SCO also advocates the establishment of a new democratic, just, and reasonable international political and economic order.
The SCO will hold a formal meeting of the heads of member states once a year and regular meetings of the heads of government, rotating among the member states.
To expand and strengthen cooperation in various fields, in addition to the established mechanisms for meetings of heads of relevant departments, new meeting mechanisms can be formed as needed, and permanent and temporary expert working groups can be established to study further cooperation plans and suggestions.
