Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin: A very important step has been taken today, in our view, along the road of strengthening mutual understanding and constructive cooperation between the six member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The year since the Shanghai Summit has convincingly borne it out: we are all interested in the deepening and consolidation of interaction in the fields of mutual concern.

We are prepared to find points of contact with due respect for the opinion of each state. And our association already, we know this firmly, evokes a growing interest in the world now.

The documents signed today are of system-forming importance for the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the further development of cooperation in various fields among our countries. These documents give a real idea what our organization will be and how it will show itself in the present-day international situation.

I want to stress that the SCO is neither a bloc, nor a closed community. Its goals, principles, objectives and mechanisms of interaction are absolutely transparent. We are fully aware of the complexity of the tasks we have set ourselves, and understand that a lot more has to be done in order to really launch the mechanisms of interaction. The Russian Federation will make the necessary efforts for the successful accomplishment of these tasks and early transformation of the SCO into a dynamic and effective organization. I want to express the confidence that this interaction will be one of the key elements in the cause of promoting stability and security in Central Asia, in Asia as a whole and in the world. There are no countries with which the Shanghai Organization could not cooperate in some or other forms. There are no themes on which the Shanghai Cooperation Organization could not foster and develop such interaction.

I want to note that for a year our experts had been intensely working on all the documents which have been signed today, and this work had been completed successfully.

Thank you for your attention.

In conclusion I want once more to cordially thank all the colleagues for the joint productive work. And the members of the press — for the patience, for the close attention to the progress in this work and for the objective coverage of the results achieved.

All the best.