On 4 July 2024, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev chaired the 24th meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council (HSC) in Astana.
Attending the meeting were President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Foreign Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Acting President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Mokhber, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Zhaparov, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming and Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Ruslan Mirzayev also took part in the meeting.
The discussion at the Astana summit focused on the prospects for expanding multilateral cooperation across the entire scope of the organisation’s activities, which spans politics, security, trade, investment, energy, environmental protection, tourism, international cooperation and improvement of the SCO.
The participants approved 25 documents, including the Astana Declaration, the Initiative On World Unity for a Just Peace, Harmony and Development, the HSC Statement on the Principles of Good Neighbourliness, Trust and Partnership, as well as the decision to appoint the Chinese city of Qingdao the SCO’s tourism and cultural capital for 2024-2025.
One of the main outcomes of the meeting was the completion of the accession procedure for the Republic of Belarus, which increased SCO membership to ten states.
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In his remarks, Secretary-General Zhang Ming praised Kazakhstan’s fruitful chairmanship of the SCO, noting that “over the past year, the SCO’s activity closely aligned with the Shanghai spirit, strengthened the mutual political trust among member states, expanded security cooperation, ensured peace and stability in the region, promoted economic development and humanitarian exchanges, and made progress on international endeavours.” Zhang Ming congratulated China on taking over the SCO chairmanship and expressed hope that “during the next year, the SCO will continue to be guided by the Shanghai Spirit, to deepen security cooperation, promote trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation, and bring a sense of greater security and tangible benefits to the people living in the SCO region.”
The event also included a SCO Plus format meeting themed Strengthening Multilateral Dialogue – Striving for Sustainable Peace and Development, which was attended by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, heads of member states, the observer state, Mongolia, guests invited by the presiding party (the Republic of Azerbaijan, the State of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Türkiye and Turkmenistan), heads of executive bodies of the UN, CIS, ECO, CICA, CSTO and EAEU, as well as the Director General of the Islamic Organisation for Food Security.
The SCO HSC meeting in Astana was the final event of Kazakhstan’s SCO chairmanship in 2023-2024.
The People’s Republic of China will take over the chairmanship in the Organisation in 2024-2025. Thenext summit will be held in China in 2025.
