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Countries on way to sustainable development face challenges — SCO secretary general

Nurlan Yermekbayev said that it is the SDG agenda, one of the UN priorities at the current stage, that acts as "a consolidating factor for the world community"

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. States face many serious challenges, including unilateral sanctions and block warfare, while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, said Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Nurlan Yermekbayev.

"Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals faces a number of challenges, including diverging interests and actions of different countries in achieving the SDGs, unilateral sanctions and block warfare. In this regard, there is an objective need to make more effective use of the SCO's potential, experience and knowledge of the member states that have made progress in achieving the targets," he told a SCO Forum on Sustainable Development.

Yermekbayev said that it is the SDG agenda, one of the UN priorities at the current stage, that acts as "a consolidating factor for the world community." It is no coincidence that the theme of Kyrgyzstan's current presidency is defined as "25 years of the SCO: together towards sustainable peace, development and prosperity."

About the forum

The SCO Forum on Sustainable Development took place on November 17 on the sidelines of a meeting of the SCO Council of heads of government. The event is attended by representatives of SCO delegations, government agencies, business, as well as experts in the field of sustainable development from the cooperation organization and partner countries. The organizers are Boris Titov, Special Representative of the Russian President for Relations with International Organizations for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals, and the SCO Secretariat with the support of Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development. The operator is the Roscongress Foundation. The main purpose of the forum is to discuss the current state of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and the prospects for the UN SDG agenda after 2030 in the face of new global challenges.

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