Granting Cambodia a status of dialogue partner marks significant stage for SCO

XIAN /China/, September 24. /TASS/. The fact that Cambodia became a dialogue partner at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Cambodia’s has marked a significant stage for the organisation development and confirmed its openness, SCO Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev told TASS on Thursday on the sidelines of the 2015 Eurasian Economic Forum held in the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province Xian. "The ceremony of singing a memorandum that grants the Kingdom of Cambodia a status of dialogue partner was held to execute instructions adopted at the summit of the council of SCO member countries, chaired by [Russian President] Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in Ufa on July 10," Mezentsev said. "This very significant step has confirmed that the SCO is an open organisation and the fact that the progress of enlargement started at the Ufa summit (when India and Pakistan launched the procedure of accession, Belarus was granted an observer status, and Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nepal and Cambodia became dialogue partners) is making the SCO stronger and more important and authoritative," he said. The memorandum defines certain directions of cooperation with Cambodia. "The cooperation will promote regional security and stability," Mezentsev said. "Cambodia’s participation in the fight against the ‘three evils’ - extremism, terrorism and separatism and drug trafficking - is one of the formats. We assume that cooperation with the SCO regional agency combatting terrorism with its headquarters in [Uzbekistan’s capital] Tashkent will be worked out." Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and SCO Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev inked the memorandum granting Cambodia a dialogue partner status in Xian on Thursday. The political decision to the issue was adopted at the SCO summit held in Ufa this July. Read more