BEIJING, February 10. /TASS/. Moscow will host about 240 events during its chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov said at a press conference on Monday.
"The chairmanship means hard work throughout the year. As far as I know, 90 events are planned for the SCO and even more - 150 - for BRICS. The responsibility is on our shoulders as we are the chairing country," he pointed out.
SCO chairmanship
According to the Russian envoy, the SCO underwent a crucial change with the accession of India and Pakistan. "Work is underway in every field and our main goal is to continue efforts to consolidate the SCO so that it operates in the most effective way in all fields, while the regional security area is the most important of all," Denisov said. "We have the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group. Afghanistan, which is our dialogue partner, participates in the SCO’s activities. Other areas particularly include the fight against terrorism. We seek to facilitate coordination efforts in terms of international agenda and foreign policy within both the SCO and BRICS," he added.
According to the ambassador, Russia will focus on facilitating infrastructure cooperation between the member states and ties between lawmakers, and promoting regional cooperation. "A regional forum of the SCO countries is expected to take place in May, which will be aimed at building practical cooperation," he specified.
BRICS priorities
The Russian envoy emphasized that an effective mechanism of investment - the New Development Bank - had been created by the BRICS countries. "We plan to give new impetus to this process. Perhaps, there will be no new members, but at least, conditions will be created for building close ties with countries that are inclined to cooperate with the bank," Denisov noted.
According to him, many countries have expressed plans to expand cooperation with the mechanism.