Respectable Chairperson,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Good morning!
I am very glad to be invited by the Finnish Defense College to this seminar and have the opportunity to brief you on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001 by six countries, i.e. China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its member states cover an area of over 30 million square kilometers, or about three fifths of Eurasia, with a population of 1.5 billion, about a quarter of the world's total.
SCO's predecessor, the Shanghai Five mechanism, originated and grew from the endeavor by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan to strengthen confidence building and disarmament in the border regions. In 1996 and 1997, the heads of five states met in Shanghai and Moscow respectively. Thereafter, this annual meeting became a regular practice and had been held alternately in the five member states. The President of Uzbekistan was invited to the 2000 Dushanbe Summit as a guest of the host state. As the first meeting of the five heads of state took place in Shanghai, the cooperation mechanism was later known as the "Shanghai Five". In June 2001, the heads of member states and the President of Uzbekistan met in Shanghai, and agreed on admitting Uzbekistan as a new member of the Shanghai Five mechanism and then jointly issued the Declaration on the Establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In June 2002, the heads of SCO member states met in St. Petersburg and signed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter, marking the actual establishment of this new organization in the sense of international law.
At present, SCO has preliminarily established its organizational system and legislative basis, and embarked on the cooperation in various fields with the security and economic cooperation as the core. It has gradually conducted contacts and exchanges with other regional and international organizations. It yielded fruitful achievements and has attracted the attention of the international community.
The SCO institutions consist of two parts: the meeting mechanism and the permanent organs. Namely, they are: 1.Council of Heads of State. 2.Council of Heads of Government. 3.Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs. 4.Conference of Heads of Agencies. 5.Council of National Coordinators. 6.Secretariat. This is SCO's standing executive organ. It is based in Beijing and was officially opened in January 2004. The first Executive Secretary is Mr. Zhang Deguang, former Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to Russia. 7.Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS). This is a SCO permanent organ based in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan. It was also officially opened in January 2004.  
The main purposes of SCO are: strengthening mutual trust and good-neighborhood and friendship among member states; developing their effective cooperation in political affairs, economy and trade, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transportation, environmental protection and other fields; working together to maintain regional peace, security and stability; and promoting the creation of a new international political and economic order featuring democracy, justice and fairness.
Due to the special status of the region where members of SCO are located in terms of world geo-politics and energy situation and the anthropological environment of multi-nationalities and religious factors, the terrorism, separatism and extremism rising in 1990s in the region are not only full of transnational characteristics, but also entangled with such social phenomena as national conflicts, religious disputes, economic regression and corruption, etc, which have formed a bad cycle.
In order to settle the problems and meet the new challenges, all countries and regions have sped the tempos of cooperation. And the establishment of SCO is just in this trend.
The SCO was the first international organization advocating clearly the fight against the three evil forces. On 15 June 2001, the day when the SCO was founded, the Shanghai Convention Against Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism was signed, clearly defining terrorism, separatism and extremism for the first time on the international arena. At the June 2002 St. Petersburg Summit, the Agreement of the SCO Member States on Counter-Terrorism Regional Structure was signed. China and Kyrgystan conducted a bilateral joint anti-terrorism military exercise within the SCO framework in October 2002, and the SCO member states held a successful multilateral joint anti-terrorism military maneuver in August 2003.
However, the SCO is not a military alliance, and it is not only a security organization, either. It started from the security cooperation and later brought out comprehensive cooperation in various fields among the members. President Hu Jintao emphasized in his speech at the Moscow Summit in 2002 that “military means can win a one-time victory, but will never be able to bring the everlasting security”.
The first Secretary General of SCO, Mr. Zhang Deguang once described the SCO collaboration in security and economy and trade as "two wheels of a car,'' and the economic and trade cooperation will bear even more significance gradually in the future.
At present, SCO cooperation has covered a wide-range areas such as security, economy, transportation, culture, disaster relief and law enforcement. Economic cooperation is a key area of cooperation for the SCO and serves as the material foundation and guarantee for SCO's smooth development. Close economic and trade relationship will bring the common prosperity to the SCO members, play a significant role in eliminating the social roots of extremism, and will enhance the solidarity of the members. In the long term, the SCO will attach equal significance to the cooperation in security as well as economic and trade sectors, which will enhance a great significance to the future development of SCO.
The Chinese economy has maintained a strong momentum of rapid growth and China also carried out the strategy of the West Development in the connection of sustainable development. This strategy will provide opportunities and markets for the economic cooperation among China and other SCO members. On the other hand, it will increase the demand for energy. China will actively conduct the energy cooperation with those central Asian countries with rich oil and gas resources. The central Asian countries have also worked out the energy-rich economic development strategy in accordance with their resource advantage. China’s West Development Strategy could rely on the vast Eurasia market and could be carried out in consistence with the development of the Central Asia region.
At the Special Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM)of Member States of SCO in Uzbekistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing stated, “Compared with the preliminary stage of other international organization, the achievements made by the SCO in the short time of two year are quite satisfactory.  But in comparison with the enthusiastic aspiration of the people in the six member states, there is still quite a long way to go and there is still a lot of work to do.  No pains no gains. We shall take the down-to-earth actions in the spirits of duty-bound masters to promote the better and faster development of the SCO and to bring more and more benefits to our people.”
All the facts have proved that the SCO has played a more and more important role in confidence building of all neighboring countries, safeguarding the security and stability of the region and enhancing the regional cooperation. The SCO upholds the Shanghai spirit characterized by mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, cooperation, respect for diversified civilizations and seek for common development. It explores and exercises a new state-to-state relationship, a new security concept and a new model of regional cooperation. I am sure that it has a bright future.
Thank you!