DUSHANBE, June 21, 2013 Asia-Plus – Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi yesterday met here with Dmitry Mezentsev, Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), according to the Tajik MFA information department.

The sides reportedly exchanged views on a broad range of issues related to activities of the Organization, including the upcoming Tajikistan’s rotating SCO presidency.

In the course of the talks, Tajik minister reportedly stressed that Tajikistan considered SCO as the organization orientated towards new values and perspective tasks.

The two also discussed the legal foundation of the Organization, implementation of international legal acts adopted within the framework of SCO.  In this connection, the Tajik side reportedly noted that the current main task of the Organization is to implement the medium-term development strategy that was adopted at the Beijing summit.

Zarifi and Mezentsev also discussed the latest developments in Afghanistan, the Tajik MFA information department said.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization or SCO is an intergovernmental mutual-security organization which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.  Except for Uzbekistan, the other countries had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organization.