Tajikistan calls for stronger security, economic cooperation within SCO

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met heads of delegations from Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states who arrived in Dushanbe for a meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government.

Rahmon said current global developments underscore the importance of the SCO as a platform for constructive dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation. He backed the peaceful settlement of conflicts and a stronger central coordinating role for the United Nations, highlighting Tajikistan's initiative, approved by the UN General Assembly, to declare 2027-2036 the International Decade of Strengthening Peace for Future Generations.

Rahmon identified expanding trade and investment, transport links, industrial and agro-industrial cooperation, the digital economy, green technologies, and energy and food security as key priorities. On security, he called for cooperation in combating terrorism, extremism, cyber threats, drug trafficking and transnational organized crime, and stressed the importance of establishing the SCO Anti-Drug Center in Dushanbe. Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, at the same meeting, urged members to ramp up trade, transport corridors and joint digital projects.