The development of the Shanghai Spirit, characterized by mutual trust, benefit, equality, the desire to resolve issues through consultations, respect for civilizational diversity and movement toward joint development played an important role in enhancing cultural-humanitarian collaboration between the SCO states. The SCO member states have established regular meetings at the level of Heads of the Ministries of Culture and Education of the SCO states, holding annual art festivals and other cultural-humanitarian events.
On September 17, 2021, at the Dushanbe SCO Summit, Uzbekistan assumed the chairmanship of the Organization in 2021-2022. At the same time, priority areas of the country’s chairmanship were identified, among which attention was also paid to the extensive use of the SCO’s potential in the cultural-humanitarian sphere, in healthcare and in combating climate change.
To date, higher education is one of the most successful areas of humanitarian cooperation within the SCO. Cooperation has been established in the implementation of educational programs between universities of the member countries of the Organization. In 2008, the concept of creating the SCO University was put forward – a network university consisting of universities of the Organization’s member countries, which today is recognized as one of the most successful in education, whose goal is to unite advanced scientific and educational schools of the entire SCO space.
Uzbekistan, within the framework of its chairmanship, attaches priority attention to the development of public diplomacy to strengthen mutual understanding, respect and trust between the Member States of the Organization through the intensification of cultural and humanitarian relations.
Tourism plays an important role in the development of humanitarian cooperation between SCO countries. At the 15th Summit in Tashkent (2016), for the first time in the history of the SCO, a joint program for the development of tourism relations was adopted.
The cultural-historical value of Samarkand is particularly significant. This city, which was located on the ancient Great Silk Road and has more than 2,750 years of rich history, has since ancient times been a place of historical meetings and civilizational dialogue, a bridge of cultural-humanitarian mutual enrichment and the development of international trade, strengthening good neighborliness. In recent years, Samarkand hosted several major forums. The city has been significantly transformed on the eve of the summit, its large-scale reconstruction is underway, the importance of the tourist brand of Samarkand is increasing. In particular, Silk Road Samarkand, the largest tourist complex in Central Asia, was opened in August this year.
Today, the SCO countries are faced with the task of developing recommendations for improving tourist and transport links between the countries along combined routes that are in great demand among foreign tourists. The tasks of digitalization of the tourism industry, the use of smart and green technologies were also defined.
Within the framework of the meeting of the heads of ministries and agencies for physical culture and sports of the SCO member states, held on the eve of the Samarkand Summit, a plan for the implementation of the roadmap for the development of physical culture and sports of the SCO countries for 2022-2024 was approved.
The Government of Uzbekistan pays great attention to the development and popularization of physical culture and sports. Sport has been identified as one of the priorities of the state’s social policy. The main attention is paid to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among the population and the implementation of large-scale projects to attract the younger generation to sports. Currently, the construction of the Palace of Water Sports is underway. There are about 51,600 sports facilities in Uzbekistan. The successful holding of the Tashkent International SCO Half Marathon in March this year, which was held in Uzbekistan for the first time, should be emphasized. On the initiative of Uzbekistan, in June this year, a competition for the best startup project among the youth of the SCO countries and an e-sports championship was organized for the first time within the framework of the SCO.
Thus, within the framework of the SCO, active and multifaceted work is being carried out in humanitarian cooperation, which tends to increase development. Due to the peculiarities of the humanitarian resources of each country, the Organization’s participants have a huge potential for interaction.
Shakhodat Khoshimova,
Chief Researcher at the Information and Analytical Center for International Relations.
