by Mahmoud Fouly
CAIRO, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Over the past 20 years, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has proven its importance in contributing to global security and stability, an Egyptian expert has said.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Hisham el-Zimaity, secretary general of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, said that the SCO is based on security cooperation to achieve stability among member states and hence global stability.
The world needs to maintain stability in order to achieve development for the people, said Zimaity, describing it as "the main goal that the SCO or any other regional organization aims at."
The SCO adopts the principles of the UN Charter and the resolution of disputes by peaceful means via dialogues, negotiations and rational ways, he noted.
"The whole world has now become one body, so that what happens there in the Far East affects South Asia, the Middle East, Europe and beyond," said Zimaity, also a former Egyptian deputy foreign minister.
"The SCO is not restricted to its eight member states, when we add observers and partners, including Egypt, we find that this organization has vastly expanded to represent perhaps half the population of the world," he said.
Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday in the Uzbek capital Tashkent to join the SCO as a dialogue partner.
"This organization has a promising and broad future ahead, and its work programs will continue developing in order to be always supportive of stability," Zimaity said. ■
