ASTANA, July 4. /TASS/. Ensuring the security of member states remains a top priority for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"Maintaining security in the member countries and along the organization’s external borders has certainly been one of the SCO’s priorities. That is why today, a decision was made to turn the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure into a universal center tasked with responding to the entire range of security threats, as well as to establish an anti-drug center in [the Tajik capital of Dushanbe]," the Russian president said at a meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana.
In addition, Putin emphasized that a special cooperation program approved at the Astana summit would facilitate the fight against separatism and extremism in the SCO countries.
Furthermore, the Russian leader also praised cooperation between businesses from SCO nations.
"The organization’s Business Council remains operational, providing our countries’ business circles with the opportunity to join mutually beneficial projects. Besides, the Shanghai Organization Interbank Consortium actively works to provide funding to such projects," Putin said.