TEHRAN – A delegation headed by Health Minister Bahram Einollahi is taking part in the seventh meeting of health ministries of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Kazakhstan.

Environmental health and safety of drinking water are the main topics of the three-day event, IRIB reported.

The health ministers of China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and the directors of the European Region of the World Health Organization are attending the meeting, as well.

Einollahi is scheduled to deliver a speech and hold talks with Kazak Health Minister, Akmaral Alnazarova, on ways to boost ties between the two countries.

In the seventh meeting of the health ministers of the member countries of the SCO, three documents will be signed on promoting cooperation on safe drinking water, and sewage management, as well as adopting comprehensive policies and basic measures to improve healthcare in member states for 2025 to 2027.

On March 11, Pedram Pak-Aein, an official with the ministry of health, said “Water safety is a cross-border issue because it contributes to many waterborne diseases,” IRIB reported.

He went on to stress the need for neighboring countries’ cooperation to maintain water safety.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been able to identify, control, and manage the risk factors that affect water safety, he added.

Attending the meeting in Kazakhstan, the health minister will present Iran’s experiences, achievements, and data in identifying factors that pose a threat to water safety and the way to control them and ensure water safety.

Einollahi will also meet the health ministers of the member states to discuss ways to enhance cooperation through conducting joint research, exchanging professors and students, exporting medicine and medical equipment, as well as holding scientific and international conferences.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental international organization established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai (PRC) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In 2002, the Charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was signed at the meeting of the Council of Heads of States in St. Petersburg, which entered into force on September 19, 2003. It is a statute that stipulates the goals, principles, structure, and major areas of activities of the organization.

The goals of the SCO are to strengthen mutual trust, friendship, and good-neighborliness between the Member States; to encourage effective cooperation between the Member States in such spheres as politics, trade, economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection.

It also aims to jointly ensure and maintain peace, security, and stability in the region; and promote a new democratic, fair, and rational international political and economic order.

MT/MG