The Chinese government on Thursday vowed to support the new secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

 

"China will, as always, support the new SCO secretary-general and the secretariat," Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said on Thursday at a reception to mark the departure of first SCO secretary-general Zhang Deguang.

 

Zhang's term ends on January 1, 2007 and Bolat Nurgaliyev, a senior Kazak diplomat, will take up the post.

 

"Although it is young, it represents the correct direction of the new cooperation of Europe and Asia," Zhang said. "The SCO has become a major positive element of international politics."

 

About 200 foreign diplomats in Beijing attended the reception.

 

Designated by the SCO summit meeting and held in turn by member states in Russian alphabetic order, every secretary-general serves only one term of three years.

 

The SCO, a regional organization founded in 2001, comprises China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while Pakistan, Mongolia, Iran and India are observers.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2006)