Egypt and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding on Egypt's accession to the organization as a dialogue partner ahead of the summit of heads of state and government of the organization's member states scheduled to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on 16 September. Ambassador Hamdi Sanad Loza, Deputy Foreign Minister for African Affairs, signed the memorandum of understanding on behalf of Egypt and Zhang Ming, Secretary General of the organization on behalf of the SCO. During his meeting with Ming, the deputy minister pointed out that Egypt's accession to the SCO as a dialogue partner is an important step towards strengthening its relations with the SCO countries in a number of fields such as trade, investment, energy, transport and tourism, as well as supporting regional security and stability. For his part, the Secretary General of the SCO welcomed Egypt's accession to the organization as a dialogue partner, expressing the organization's aspiration for fruitful cooperation in the coming phase. The SCO was established in 2001 as an intergovernmental organization with the aim of strengthening regional security, combating terrorism and drug trafficking, and achieving regional development. The organization has eight member states (China/ Russia/ India/ Pakistan/ Kazakhstan/ Uzbekistan/ Tajikistan/ Kyrgyzstan). This is in addition to four observer states and six dialogue partners.
