Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday urged leaders of Central Asian nations to boost competitiveness and build the region into an economic "driving force." dpa reported. Regional governments should promote cooperation in trade, investment and infrastructure, Hu told a leaders' summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which groups China, Russia and four Central Asian nations. "We should build the SCO into a driving force to boost regional economic development," Hu said in a speech at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. The six nations should construct air, rail, road, telecommunications and energy networks to encourage closer links between them, he said. Following the summit, Hu told reporters that the six SCO leaders agreed to admit Afghanistan as an observer and Turkey as a dialogue partner of the group. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were among the other leaders who attended the two-day SCO summit, which opened on Wednesday. Karzai's office said he held talks in Beijing on Wednesday with officials from the China National Petroleum Corporation, which agreed to conduct a feasibility study for a planned gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China via Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The SCO leaders also approved a Beijing Declaration on regional development and regulations for responding to "events jeopardizing regional peace, security and stability." They agreed to expand cooperation in finance, transportation, energy, telecommunications and agriculture. The joint statement said the six nations would "continue to promote peace, justice, democracy and diversity in the world." "The member states support Afghanistan's effort to build an independent, neutral, peaceful, prosperous country free of terrorism and drug-related crimes," it said. It said national reconciliation should be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned," with the United Nations leading the international assistance to the war-torn nation. China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are the SCO's six members states. India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia are permanent observers to the group, while Belarus and Sri Lanka became dialogue partners in 2010. The bloc was founded in 2001 to enhance security cooperation. It has since expanded its discussions to cover economic, technological, cultural and other forms of cooperation.
