The third meeting of the Prime Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members held on September 23 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, represents the body's bigger role in maintaining regional peace and stability. 

The conference brought together prime ministers from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and urged closer cooperation among member states in the economy and the fight against terrorism.

The SCO members' shared commitment to economic progress brewed both opportunities and demands for economic cooperation in an all-round way.

The premiers issued a joint communiqué and adopted nine documents including a plan on measures to implement the compendium on multi-lateral economic and trade cooperation among member states.

The plan covered major areas such as the economy, science and technology and humanitarian cooperation between member states, touching upon more than 100 specific projects and tasks.

The joint communiqué also called on member states to commit themselves to gradually facilitate a free flow of commodities, capital, services and technology, promising to prepare legal documents and coordinate related legislation to that end.

Such a series of moves demonstrates the SCO's unshakeable determination to put into practice the consensus reached by heads of the member states in their Tashkent Summit in June.

Business deals are essential for SCO members' professed aspirations to make their relations mutually beneficial. However, benefits do not stop just at the economic front.

The SCO exists first and foremost for security concerns, which prompted the idea of a regional mechanism.

To effectively cope with the challenges of terrorism, separatism and extremism, the joint communiqué released last Thursday underlined the importance of enhancing cooperation in combating international terrorism and meeting new types of security challenge.

Ever since the mid-1990s, the three forces in Central Asia have contributed to a number of terrorist crimes, including bombings, assassinations, arson, abductions, poisonings and assaults, backed by the Taliban regime and the al-Qaeda network, challenging the governments of Central Asian countries and threatening regional security and stability.

Adding to the region's long list of casualties of terrorist operations was the deadly school hostage siege in the southern Russian town of Beslan earlier this month.

The tragedy is a grim reminder that no country is free from the threat of terrorism.

The SCO has played a key role in fighting the three forces and maintaining regional peace and stability since its establishment in 2001.

After completing its initial stages of work in the past three years, the urgent tasks facing the regional body are to work together to make anti-terrorism institutions operate effectively, exchange more information and promote coordination among law enforcement departments, and establish mechanisms of liaison and contingency.

The consensus reached by the premiers at the Bishkek meeting to press ahead with the SCO's mechanism's construction plan will no doubt strengthen the body's muscle and lay a solid foundation for future cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

(China Daily September 27, 2004)