SCO pledges to strengthen interactions

Justice ministers reach agreement on importance of legal cooperation

Justice ministers from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have agreed to continue to strengthen interactions between their ministries and deepen cooperation in legal services.

Based on the agreement, made at the 10th Meeting of the SCO Ministers of Justice in Shanghai on Tuesday, they signed a joint statement emphasizing the importance of cooperation in legal and judicial fields, and continuing regular dialogues and implementing agreements.

Altogether, 11 bilateral and multilateral talks between the member states were held during the meeting, Du Yaling, head of the international cooperation bureau of the Ministry of Justice, which held the meeting, said during a news conference on Wednesday.

The SCO was established 22 years ago and is the world's largest political, economic and international security and defense organization in terms of population. Its members include China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The meeting involved 300 representatives, including government officials and professionals from the legal service industry, academia and business sectors, from home and abroad.

China's Ministry of Justice signed a cooperation framework with its counterpart in Russia and a cooperation plan with its counterpart in Kyrgyzstan to further clarify the content and form of cooperation in the judicial field, said Du.

During her meeting with Konstantin Chuychenko, minister of justice of Russia, He Rong, China's Minister of Justice, introduced the tremendous achievements made in the construction of rule of law in China.

She said China's Ministry of Justice is willing to work with its counterpart in Russia to continue to deepen practical cooperation in the fields of legislation, law enforcement supervision, judicial assistance, transfer of sentenced individuals, as well as legal services, such as lawyers and notary service and arbitration. These actions will better utilize the rule of law to serve the economic and social development of the two countries and provide legal guarantees for the development of China-Russia relations and foreign cooperation between the two countries.

Chuychenko said the ministry of justice of Russia is willing to deepen exchanges, mutual learning and practical cooperation with China's Ministry of Justice in various fields, and make more contributions to promoting new and greater development of China-Russia relations in the new era.

Akbar Toshqulov, minister of justice of Uzbekistan, said that China is an important partner of Uzbekistan, and Chinese investment in Uzbekistan is currently very active.

"The pace of cooperation is developing rapidly and the cooperation involves many fields, which plays an important role in promoting the development of bilateral relations," said Toshqulov.

"We have reached an agreement with Chinese legal service institutions to allow their local operation to defend the interests of Chinese investors. Offices of such institutions have been established in Tashkent, Uzbekistan's capital," he said.