TASHKENT, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been steadily moving towards strengthening friendship, good-neighborliness and trust among its member states since its founding 20 years ago, an Uzbek expert has said.

"One of the main goals and objectives of the SCO is to promote comprehensive and balanced economic growth, social and cultural development in the region through joint actions based on equal partnership of the member states, in order to steadily improve the living conditions of peoples," Kabuljon Sabirov, director of the Tashkent-based SCO's Public Diplomacy Center, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The formation of the SCO, with an aim "to create stable mechanisms of interaction, a platform for constant political dialogue and regional economic cooperation," was a turning point in the development of mankind, Sabirov said.

"The SCO was and is a collective response of the peoples of a vast region to the challenges of our time," he said.

Sabirov said the SCO, galvanized by the Shanghai Spirit featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity, and pursuit of common development, has created conditions for further developing inter-civilizational and interreligious dialogue, which act as the best antidote to such threats as terrorism, extremism, separatism, organized crime and religious intolerance.

"The development of intercultural dialogue in the interests of the peoples living in the SCO space, the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity, and cooperation in the study of the cultural and natural heritage of the region contribute to further development of contacts between peoples," Sabirov said, adding that civil society and public diplomacy can play a unique role in helping the SCO's development.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the SCO have been helping each other with a spirit of solidarity, which has boosted the SCO's sustainable development and promoted global anti-pandemic cooperation, the expert said, noting that China has made a significant contribution to this.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's remarks in recent years on multiple international occasions, which demonstrate China's view on world civilizations characterized by equality, mutual learning, dialogue and mutual accommodation, are an important driving force for promoting the peaceful development of the SCO, he added.

Noting that Uzbekistan has launched new cooperation platforms within the SCO's framework in recent years, the expert said the country is interested in stepping up practical cooperation in those promising areas that meet the vital interests of all participating countries.

"The development of relations with the SCO will remain an important direction of Uzbekistan's foreign policy," he said. Enditem

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