Belt and Road will boost SCO strength

President Xi Jinping will attend the 16th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tashkent on June 23 and 24 to end his eight-day visit to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan which started on Friday.

At the Tashkent meeting, he is also expected to discuss with other SCO leaders the applications of India and Pakistan to join the bloc, as well as other key issues including the fight against terrorism and transnational cooperation in the Beijing-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the six-nation SCO was among the first regional organizations to address the issue of cross-border terrorism. In fact, before Uzbekistan joined the organization in 2001, the other five SCO members had already agreed to establish a routine communication mechanism involving their defense and law-enforcing departments. And on the day of its official founding, the heads of the six member states signed a pact on battling terrorism, separatism and extremism.