MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Moscow and New Delhi emphasized the importance of increasing the productivity of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a joint statement following their talks in the Indian capital.

"The parties emphasized the importance of further building the SCO’s throughput and cooperation in the fields of politics, security, the economy, culture, and humanitarian ties," the document reads.

The joint statement notes that in this regard, the parties emphasized "the need to promote the SCO’s modernization, particularly in terms of combating terrorism, extremism, separatism, drug trafficking, cross-border crime, and information security threats." Special attention "will be paid to the creation of a universal center for countering threats and challenges to the security of SCO member states in Tashkent and an SCO anti-drug center in Dushanbe."

Russia and India also pointed to "the SCO’s increasing role in forming a representative, democratic, and fair multipolar world order based on the universally recognized principles of international law and cultural and civilizations diversity."

The SCO was founded on June 15, 2001. The six founding members were Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined the organization in 2017, followed by Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.