The Opening Ceremony of the SCO National Center for People's Diplomacy in Russia took place in Moscow

Moscow, June 30, 2023. The reception house of  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia) hosted a solemn ceremony held to open the National Center for People's Diplomacy of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Russia with the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Andrey Belyaninov and representatives of diplomatic missions of 18 SCO countries in Moscow ( Member States, Observers and Dialogue Partners): Armenia, Bahrain, Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Qatar, China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Sri Lanka.

The National Center for Public Diplomacy of the SCO in Russia was established with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation at the initiative of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly to expand humanitarian and business partnerships with the SCO countries.

In his welcoming speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted:

“The activities of the National Center will undoubtedly help strengthen friendship and interaction among the general public of the SCO countries, help promote an objective image of Russia both within the space of the organization and beyond. The Center fully relies on such basic SCO principles as openness, mutual trust, equality, non-direction against third countries, respect for cultural diversity and the desire for joint creative development.

Today the SCO is one of the foundations of the emerging multipolar world order based on the UN Charter; on the philosophy of equal, indivisible security; the rights of peoples to decide their own destiny. Our organization is a vivid example of truly multilateral diplomacy. Within the SCO, countries with different political systems, distinctive values and traditions effectively cooperate in various fields. We do not have leaders and followers, and decisions are made by consensus. In practice, the fundamental principle of the UN Charter is applied - the sovereign equality of states”.

The Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Andrei Belyaninov, representing the National Center for Public Diplomacy of the SCO in Russia, emphasized:

“This is a very big event for us. The network of such SCO Houses, such instruments of public diplomacy, should cover the whole world. People should see the attraction of communicating with each other, and for us this should become an urgent task”.

Recall that the newly opened SCO Center for Public Diplomacy in Russia became the fifth in the network of SCO Public Diplomacy Centers. They already exist in China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The SCO was founded on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai. Currently, the organization consists of 8 countries: its founders - Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as India (chairing in 2023) and Pakistan, which joined in 2017.