Tokayev wants SCO to prevent geopolitical rift between West and East

According to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, one of the crucial tasks the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been assigned is to prevent a geopolitical rift between the East and West.

«At this point in history, the key task of our countries should be the prevention of geopolitical rift between the East and West. The SCO can and must offer the world its vision of sustainable peace across the world,» he said at a meeting of the council of heads of state members of the SCO.

As the president noted, once Kazakhstan presides in the organization, it will step in with an initiative on global unity for a fair and harmonious world. The country is going to prepare a document with principles of trust, stability and security.

This year, the organization was presided by India and after the online meeting this week, the chairmanship will be passed to Kazakhstan. The previous SCO summit was held in Uzbekistan in September last year.

Among members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Russia, Pakistan and India, while Belarus, Iran and Mongolia have observer status.