On June 8, 2004, President Hu Jintao met in Beijing with Secretary-General Zhang Deguang, Deputy Secretary-Generals Narisov, Kulubayev and Zaharov of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Hu expressed his pleasure to meet with heads of the SCO Secretariat before the Tashkent Summit. As the standing executive organ, the Secretariat is of great significance to the effective operation of the SCO. We think highly of the outstanding efforts made by the Secretariat in promoting cooperation in various fields and expanding external exchanges since its official launch in January this year. Hu said pragmatic cooperation in various fields should be the priority of SCO. The major task for the Tashkent Summit is to work out specific plans and measures for the organizational security as well as pragmatic cooperation in the economic sphere. All the work to be carried out by the Secretariat should focus on this priority. As the host country of the Secretariat, China will continue to fully support the work of the Secretariat and provide all facilitation and coordination needed.

Zhang expressed his gratitude to the Chinese government for its support to the work of the SCO Secretariat and said the Secretariat will try to implement the consensus reached by the heads of member states so as to serve the common interests of the peoples in the member states.