SCO consolidates itself as security institute over Eurasian space.

MOSCOW, September 26 (Itar-Tass) - The SCO has consolidated itself as
an inseparable institute of security in the region, said President Dmitry
Medvedev in an interview with the Chinese newspaper Renmin Ribao on the
eve of his visit to China.
"The SCO has become one of the most prestigious organizations not only
on the regional but also on the global scale thanks to joint efforts of
Russia, China and our Central Asian partners," he stated.
"I shall not overestimate, I believe, by saying that the solution of
tasks of stable and gradual development in the Euro-Asian space is already
impossible to imagine without the SCO," the Russian head of state added.
According to the president, "the steady expansion of diverse
multilevel partnership relations also points to the rising influence of
the SCO". "Activities of observer states remain invariably high. They are
also joined by countries, that have received the status of a partner in
the dialogue," the Russian head of state stated. "On the whole, network
dialogue cooperation with the leading international organisations - the
UN, the CSTO, the CIS, the Euro-Asian Economic Community and the ASEAN -
is turning increasingly efficient."
"We fight terrorism, separatism, trans-border organised crime and
illicit drug trafficking in the framework of the SCO," Medvedev noted.
"Joint anti-terrorist exercises of SCO states help to raise their role in
the struggle against new challenges and threats, including the exercises,
carried out in Russia last August and 'Peace mission-2010' in Kazakhstan,
that has just successfully ended," he continued.
The head of state noted, "The main areas of our partnership within the
SCO are economic and humanitarian cooperation". "I'm convinced that
precisely the balanced advance along all directions of joint work will
help to ensure further consolidation of our organisation," he concluded.
-0-bur/kud