SCO not ready to accept new members
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-01 11:39

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui said in Beijing Tuesday that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will not take in new members before its six members make serious studies.

The organization is still very young and the six SCO members need to have further discussions before deciding whether or not toaccept new members, Li said at a press briefing.

On June 17, the SCO will hold Tashkent summit meeting in Uzbekistan and Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend the summit.

Li said a regulation on the SCO observers will be ratified at the upcoming summit, which will give the organization a larger space in the diplomatic field.

The SCO was set up as an open and nonaligned organization and it is not targeted to the third party, Li said. According to the new regulation, to have observers will be an important step for the organization to keep open, Li added.

"But to expand membership is totally different from accepting observers and the six members need to have further discussions on accepting new members," he said.

In addition, Li said Afghan Transitional Government President Hamid Karzai will, as guest of Uzbek President Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov, attend the Tashkent summit. This was the first time that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization had invited the leader of a non-SCO member state to be present at the summit.

However, Karzai was not invited to attend the summit as an observer, Li said.

The official said the SCO has increased importance during the past three years since its founding.

"Many countries believe that the organization has become an important force in maintaining regional stability and there are more and more countries expressing willingness to join the organization," Li said.

The official said there was no regulations and laws whatsoever about new membership. "But I believe it will be possible for some countries to attend SCO meetings as observers in the future," he said.

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