THE annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) began in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday.

Leaders of SCO’s six member states — Chinese President Hu Jintao, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon and Uzbek President Islam Karimov — addressed the summit and inked a long-term treaty on good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation.

Leaders and representatives from SCO’s observer countries — Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran and India — also delivered speeches at the summit.

SCO member countries should engage in all-around exchanges and cooperation in such fields as science, culture, education, sports and healthcare, and make special efforts to create conditions for interaction between their young people, Hu said.

Apart from other scholarship programs set up under bilateral agreements, China will establish a separate scholarship project to sponsor 20 students from its five fellow SCO members studying in China every year.(SD-Xinhua)