SCO summit in September in Dushanbe: Tajik President Emomali Rahmon

Tajikistan will be holding the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of statesummitonSeptember16-17inthe capitalDushanbe, the country'spresidentEmomaliRahmonhas announced.

Tajikistan is chair of the grouping which has eightmember states - Russia, China,India, Pakistan, and fourcentral Asian countries - Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan.

Speaking to Khovar National News Agency,PresidentRahmon while pointingout the key focus areas said,"The main task is to strengthen the potential andinternational position of our organization" and amid the COVID-19pandemic "it is extremely important to build up trade and economic cooperation within theSCOspace."

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Ahead of thesummitinSeptember, a number of meetings between ministers of foreign affairs, defense, justice, finance, healthcareofSCOmember states are scheduled. Last month,SCONSAs had metinDushanbe. The first meetings of the ministers ofindustry and energy of theSCOmember states is scheduled to be heldinDushanbeinJuly and August of this year.

On the issue of terror, he said, it is necessary "to promote the joint purposeful work to combat global threats and security challenges. The issues of cybercrime and countering the spread of various radical ideologies, especially among young people, require special attention."SCORegional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) on one such groupinthe body working on counter-terror policies.

Tajikistan, as the chair, will also focus on hydropower, as one of the waysindealing with climate change.

Thepresidentsaid, "The joint use ofTajikistan's immense hydropower potential will significantlyincrease the level of energy supply to the countries of the region, reduce the cost of its production, reduce the damage to the environment,including by limiting the volume of carbon dioxide emissionsinto the atmosphere.".

Tajikistan has 13,000 glaciers and about 1,000 rivers, which form more than 60 per cent of Central Asia's water resources.

SCOas a grouping occupies 60 per cent of the Eurasian continentwhich is over 34 million square kilometres on which 3 billion peoplereside accounting foralmost half of the world's population.

Mongolia, Belarus, Afghanistan, and Iran are theobserversinthe grouping, whileArmenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Cambodia, Nepaland Sri Lanka have received dialogue partner status.