DUSHANBE, June 29, Asia-Plus — Energy ministers from member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have gathered in Moscow for a meeting that opened today. 

According to the Tajik Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI), the main focus of the meeting is establishment of the SCO energy club.  Tajikistan is represented at the meeting by Energy and Industries Minister Sherali Gulov.  

The source at a MoEI said that the meeting is expected to result in signing of an agreement on the SCO energy club concept.  The SCO energy club will be a center for information and debating for all-round discussion of energy strategies of the SCO member countries and matters of interaction in international markets, according to the source.

The meeting is also discussing issues related to state and prospects of energy cooperation within the SCO area and working out joint projects for development of oil-and-fuel deposits in Central Asia. 

The SCO energy ministers are also supposed to project a concerted strategy of development of fuel-and-energy complex of member nations of the SCO for the purpose of further harmonization.   

We will recall that the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry announced at an international conference “The SCO: Results and Perspectives”, which was held in the Kazakh city of Almaty on November 30, 2006, that Russia is developing plans for an SCO "Energy Club", and a special interstate working group for the fuel-and-energy complex was set up in the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.  It decides on pilot projects of cooperation that may be implemented shortly and prepares meetings of ministers of the SCO member nations responsible for the fuel-and-energy complex. 

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was formed in 2001 as the successor to the Shanghai Five. The organization includes six countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.