In his opening remarks, Nursultan Nazarbayev greeted the meeting participants, noting the importance of holding such an event on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit this June in Astana.
- We empathize with all citizens of Russia in connection with the incident in St. Petersburg. That suggests that terrorism and extremism have no borders, and risks and threats remain. In this regard, the leaders of the countries pay special attention to the work of the Secretaries to Security Councils, the President of Kazakhstan said.
The Head of State drew attention to the importance of strengthening existing cooperation mechanisms and the SCO regulatory framework.
Nursultan Nazarbayev also noted the positive results of the work done by the SCO member states to strengthen economic and political ties.
In addition, the President of Kazakhstan dwelled on individual tasks facing the organization.
- They are coordinated actions of the participating countries on all the issues. Currently, the SCO Convention on Counteracting Extremism and the SCO Statement on Joint Counteractions to International Terrorism are under consideration. It is necessary to complete the mutual approval of the documents in a short time, the Head of State stressed.
Nursultan Nazarbayev stated that the SCO Astana summit shall accept India and Pakistan as full members of the organization, and it will give an additional impetus to strengthening cooperation in Asia.
- It is necessary to expand cooperation of the SCO with international and regional structures: the UN, CSTO and CICA. We believe that this will also affect the further development of the organization, the President of Kazakhstan said.
The Head of State stressed that Kazakhstan as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018 shall make a significant contribution to the international peace and security strengthening. In particular, the efforts for a political settlement of the Syrian crisis have been mentioned.
The meeting participants are the Secretaries to the Security Councils of Kazakhstan V. Zhumakanov, Kyrgyzstan T. Djumakadyrov, Russia N. Patrushev, Tajikistan A. Kakharov, State Councilor - Minister of Public Security (China) Guo Shengkun, the SCO Secretary General R. Alimov, and Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure E.Sysoev.
The Astana Security Council event is held within the framework of Kazakhstan's chairmanship in the SCO and is an important stage in getting prepared for the Council of Heads of the SCO member states’ meeting scheduled for June the current year.
