On 19 September 2023, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming met with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit as part of the ad hoc meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers Council on the sidelines of High-Level Week at the UN General Assembly’s 78th Session in New York.
Zhang Ming briefed his counterpart on the current developments and main objectives of the organisation. He noted that the SCO and the Arab League are major regional international organisations that share common or close goals, similar cooperation areas and priorities. Strenghtening interaction between the two associations is in the interests of the region and the world. The SCO Secretariat is ready to deepen bilateral contacts as part of the cooperation agreements between the SCO and the Arab League and to follow the league’s successful experience in the interests of facilitating development in the region.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit emhpasised that the Arab League countries value the SCO’s achievements in development and the important and constructive role it plays in the region. Some Arab League states are included in the SCO family and an increasing number of the league’s countries are showing interest in joining the SCO. The Arab League is ready to use every opportunity to build relations between the two organisations, expand them and fill this interaction with practical content, which will give a boost to the development and progress of the countries in the region.