The current stage of SCO expansion is taking place against the backdrop of globalization of challenges and threats to security. This was stated by BISR Director Oleg Makarov during the round table "SCO Expert Track: Prospects and Opportunities for Belarus" at the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research in Minsk, BelTA said.
"As President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko recently stated in his Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly, acceding the SCO will allow us to become stronger, as well as make the organization itself stronger by providing extra opportunities for cooperation in many areas, including production cooperation and logistics. The current stage of SCO expansion is taking place amid the backdrop of dramatic transformations in the international and regional environment, the globalization of challenges and the emergence of unconventional risks, challenges and threats to security. Processes and trends occurring within the member states and applicants themselves have a significant impact on the SCO development", Oleg Makarov said. "In these conditions, deep scientific comprehension, analysis of ongoing processes and phenomena, search for optimal ways to achieve the main goals, updating the development strategy through the generation of new ideas are, of course, urgent tasks requiring the mobilization of intellectual resources of the entire "SCO family" without exception, including the involvement of various public institutions".
The BISR Director is convinced that the SCO Forum, where the most authoritative research centers of the member states are represented, is the optimal intellectual platform for professional discussions, exchange of views on the current agenda, as well as search for answers to existing and potential challenges and threats.
"Working in close contact with the Secretariat, the Council of National Coordinators and the Business Council, the SCO Forum is able to make a worthy contribution to the formation of a unified educational space, the development of new industries and advanced research in the fields of artificial intelligence, microelectronics, medicine, military-industrial production, tools of the new Eurasian financial system, as well as information and food security in the area of responsibility of the organization, - Oleg Makarov emphasized. - In BISR, we warmly support the idea of a broad, systematic, permanent expert dialogue in the SCO space, which, through stable and trusting ties between analytical centers and individual experts, contributes to increasing the level of mutual trust and mutual understanding, and also makes a significant contribution to the process of forming a common market of ideas and an image of the future of Greater Eurasia".
This is especially relevant in the light of the decision taken at the Samarkand summit in September 2022 to begin the modernization of the SCO in order to carefully fine-tune the executive mechanisms under dynamically changing international conditions, as well as in the interests of further improving the efficiency of activities and the ability to solve the tasks, the BISR Director noted.
"Separately, we are interested in the comprehensive involvement of the SCO Forum potential, country scientific educational and expert institutes in the interests of the development of the national scientific school of Oriental studies in Belarus, including the development of specialized educational programs, - Oleg Makarov added. - I have no doubt that BISR accession to the SCO Forum in the status of a National Research Center is a matter of time and will only strengthen the dynamics, scale and practical impact of expert interaction in the spirit of the norms and values of the "Shanghai Spirit" - the time-tested political and moral and ethical basis of the organization."