FM hails admission of Sri Lanka as Dialogue Partner of SCO

(June 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) “The admission of Sri Lanka as a Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a significant victory for the pro-active and dynamic foreign policy pursued by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government. The decision taken by the leaders of the SCO at the end of their two-day Summit yesterday (16 June 2009) in Yekaterinburg, Russia, is an acknowledgment by this important inter-governmental organization of the strategic and important role that Sri Lanka can play in international affairs”. These observations were made by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, welcoming the decision of the 6-member grouping comprising China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to unanimously accede to Sri Lanka’s application to join the SCO as a Dialogue Partner.

The SCO is a permanent inter-governmental international organization which was established on 15th June 2001 in Shanghai by the 6-Member States, with the main objectives of strengthening mutual confidence and good neighbourly relations among Member States, promoting effective cooperation in the political, trade & economic, scientific & technological and cultural fields as well as in areas such as education, energy, transportation, tourism and environmental protection, making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security & stability in the region, moving towards the establishment of a new, democratic just and rational political and economic international order.

Foreign Minister Bogollagama had initiated action to seek membership of this important international organization, whose 6 members account for 60% of the landmass of Eurasia and with its Observers and affiliates, half of the world population by writing to the Foreign Ministers in the grouping late last year. All Member States had responded positively to the Sri Lankan request. The Minister particularly acknowledged the support and advice received from his Chinese and Russian counterparts. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had written to Minister Bogollagama welcoming the Sri Lankan initiative and had assured him that the Russian side would look upon the request favourably.

In the light of the successful eradication of the menace of terrorism from the island, Sri Lanka’s membership in this forum as a Dialogue Partner would enable it to share its experience in countering terrorism, while upholding human rights and democracy, with the Member States. The final declaration of the Heads of State Meeting of the SCO in Yekaterinburg welcomed the end of the internal conflict in Sri Lanka, and expressed hope for establishing a firm peace, strengthening security and stability in the country on the basis of ensuring state sovereignty and territorial integrity, guaranteeing the rights of all ethnic and religious groups.

Apart from the 6 members, 4 countries namely India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have Observer status in the SCO, while Afghanistan is associated as part of the SCO – Afghanistan Contact Group. The position of Dialogue Partner was created in 2008 in accordance with Article 14 of the SCO Charter of 07 June 2002, which regards a Dialogue Partner as a state or an organization which shares the goals and principles of the SCO and wishes to establish relations of equal, mutually beneficial partnership with the organization.

-Sri Lanka Guardian