A delegation of faculty members and students from the Xiamen University Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures visited the Secretariat of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Wednesday.
The visit was part of a lecture series the Secretariat has been running throughout the year to mark the organization’s 25th anniversary.
During the visit, Deputy Secretary-General Sohail Khan briefed the delegation on the history of the SCO and its achievements to date, and took questions on the organization’s youth projects and its cultural and humanitarian cooperation initiatives.
As part of the “open lecture” series, the Secretary-General and his deputies have visited universities and institutes across member and partner states to speak about SCO’s origins, growth, and current priorities.
Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev opened the series in February at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, addressing young medical professionals from Ruijin Hospital on the SCO’s healthcare and scientific cooperation.
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In March, Deputy Secretary-General Oleg Kopylov spoke to students at Astana International University in Kazakhstan while a Secretariat delegation visited the Diplomatic Academy of Russia’s MGIMO University next month, where a student essay competition was also launched to mark the anniversary.
May was a particularly a busy month for the series as Secretary General Yermekbayev delivered lectures at Nalanda University in India and while concluding an official visit to Sri Lanka, at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies on the theme of SCO–Sri Lanka partnership.
A Secretariat delegation also visited Bukhara State University in Uzbekistan, where Deputy Secretary-General Piao Yangfan outlined plans for further anniversary events alongside the customary history and achievements briefing.
The Secretariat has described the series as being carried out under its official work plan for celebrating the anniversary, alongside other events such as last week’s photo exhibition in Bishkek and the SCO film festival.
The visit of Xiamen University delegation continues the same vision, with an added dimension of engaging language and cultural studies students.
This reflects on the series as having a broader ambition of building academic ties across a range of disciplines within SCO member and observer states.
Tayyaba Afzal is an International Relations Graduate from Lahore College for Women University. Her research interests include Information Warfare, AI Governance and Digital Diplomacy. She can be reached at [email protected]
