Presidents of "Shanghai Five" Summit Pledge to Enhance Cooperation

"Shanghai Five" Summit Pledges to Enhance Cooperation

In their annual summit meeting in Dushanbe Wednesday, presidents from China, Tajikistan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan pledged to enhance cooperation among their nations.

President of the hosting country, Emomali Rakhmonov, presided over the meeting, commonly known as the "Shanghai Five" summit since it first began in Shanghai, China in April 1996.

Attending this year's summit are Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev, and Tajik President Rakhmonov.

Uzebekistan President Islam Karimov attended the meeting for the first time as an observer.

All the five presidents highly commended the development of the "Shanghai Five" summit process. Starting as a forum aimed at reducing hostility along the border lines, the mechanism has turned out to be a new niche for regional cooperation in political, security, law enforcement, and economic areas.

The heads of state called for concrete cooperation among the five nations, ranging from state level to government department level, on bilateral and multilateral basis.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin made a four-point proposal to turn the meeting mechanism to a cooperation mechanism.

Economic and trade cooperation was a hot topic for the five leaders. Each of them briefed the summit on the economic situation in his country and presented specific projects open to other countries.

China's Jiang welcomed the countries at the summit to participate in China's development of its vast western areas.

Kyrzyrstan President Askar Akayev invited others to join the energy and communication program linking up the whole region.

The crackdown on separatism, terrorism and extremism was also high on the agenda of the meeting. While condemning the terrorist activities rampant in the region, all vowed to enhance cooperation among security and law enforcement departments.

Russian President Putin said that the crackdown on terrorists " is not enough," (and) efforts should be made to disarm them ideologically so that they could not plan terrorist activities in the pretext of "fight for faith."

All agreed to maintain the authority of the United Nations as a global framework to safeguard world peace and stability. Khazakstan President Nazarbayev said the maintenance cannot go against the recognized norms governing international relations.

After the summit, the presidents of "Shanghai Five" nations signed the Dushanbe Statement.

The Dushanbe meeting marked the conclusion of the first round of the "Shanghai Five" summit. The presidents agreed that the next summit will be held in Shanghai, China in early June next year.