By the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan His Excellency Mr. Sirodjidin Aslov. Prior to 2014 SCO Summit, the SCO summit was held in Dushanbe in 2008. Six years have passed and over those years the political situation in the world has undergone many changes. The world does not stand still – the processes of globalization affect the international situation, but the threats and challenges that we considered in 2008 are still relevant. For instance, the fight against terrorism, separatism, extremism, illegal drug trafficking and transnational organized crime were among the items on the agenda of 2014 (SCO) Summit. As is well known, at the last meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO Member States, on 13 September 2013 in Bishkek, the Republic of Tajikistan assumed the chairmanship of the SCO and the SCO Summit in Dushanbe on 12 September 2014 marked the end of Tajikistan’s one-year presidency. The main goals of Tajikistan during its presidency of the SCO were to intensify cooperation in the field of security and to facilitate mutually beneficial and productive political, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation within the SCO. During its chairmanship Tajikistan, with the active support of its partners, has managed to achieve significant results in some pillars of the SCO. The SCO chairmanship was held under the motto: “Cooperation, co-development, co-prosperity”. In the framework of our chairmanship we have put in every effort to make this motto reflect maximum practical implementation of the issues that are on current agenda of the Organization. The results of those efforts were the agreements reached and documents adopted at the Summit. In addition, 50 major events in various areas of cooperation have been held during this year. During the presidency of Tajikistan about ten meetings of the Council of SCO National Coordinators were held in Dushanbe, Tashkent and Beijing, several consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs on the various issues of the Organization took place in Beijing and the 24th meeting of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure was held in Tashkent. The 9th Meeting of the Secretaries of the Security Council, the meeting of Defence Ministers, the Meeting of the Heads of Border Services of the Competent Authorities, the Meeting of the Heads of the Competent Authorities in the sphere of fight against drug trafficking, the Meeting of Ministers of Culture as well as the International Scientific and Practical Conference on “The role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in regional security: Problems and Prospects” took place in Dushanbe and Kairakkum during this period. It is worth noting, in particular, that in the 13-year period of the SCO’s existence, it was only under Tajikistan’s chairmanship of the SCO that the member states took an inventory of the legal framework of cooperation within the SCO for the first time. In the framework of this inventory, the parties have carried out a legal analysis of the implementation of decisions of the Council of Heads of State, Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) and the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, for the purpose of their further proper execution. The verification of data on the implementation of internal procedures on international agreements signed within the framework of the SCO was also carried out during the inventory process. I am glad to note that with every year the prestige of SCO in the world, and in our region in particular, continues to grow steadily. This is confirmed by the existence of significant interest among many countries and regional organizations that see the SCO as a very influential and promising regional association. As you may know, currently five states – Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan – have observer status with the SCO, and Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka have the status of dialogue partners. Some of these countries wish to enhance their status with the SCO. A number of states have applied for membership of the SCO and some dialogue partner states have applied to raise their status to that of observer. It has become a tradition that the summits held in Dushanbe take on a historical mission. The historic step towards the transformation of the “Shanghai Five” into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was taken in July 2000, during the Dushanbe meeting of the “Shanghai Five” Heads of State, and in 2008 during another Dushanbe summit it was decided to establish a special expert group to reflect on expansion of the Organization. Finally, during this Summit the Procedure for granting the status of the SCO member state and the Model Memorandum of Obligations of a candidate country for obtaining the status of SCO member state were adopted with amendment. These documents are designed to promote geographical expansion of the SCO, which will facilitate multilateral cooperation in the region. During the presidency of Tajikistan the interaction between the SCO member states and observer states has been considerably intensified. Thus, during this period the SCO Secretariat hosted the first meeting of SCO national coordinators with the authorized representatives of observer states, and the Executive Committee of SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure held its first conference with the participation of anti-terrorism agencies of the observers. These formats count as innovations in the work of the Organization, and it is gratifying that they have appeared during the presidency of Tajikistan. In general, a chairmanship of any organization and the holding of summits are a major responsibility for any state. The highly positive appreciation of the SCO Summit participants on the result of Tajikistan’s chairmanship of the organization is a cause for pride. Tajikistan has actually proved itself once again as an independent and progressive state, which has all necessary facilities for holding important international political events at the highest level. The SCO Summit also provided a good opportunity for Tajikistan to act on its political and economic interests and to consider the issues of bilateral cooperation, including attracting foreign investment. A number of bilateral agreements and documents of vital importance for the country were signed during the Summit. The meeting at the ministerial level conducted in Tajikistan during the year allowed the officials to discuss with their colleagues the issues of bilateral cooperation and inter-agency cooperation as well as to sign documents on bilateral cooperation. It should be noted that the SCO as an organization was founded on the principles of good neighbourliness, mutual benefit, equality and respect for cultures with the aim of mutual development. At the same time, the SCO, in its relations with other countries and organizations, has been guided by the principles of mutual trust and does not direct its activity against any third country. The SCO countries, in our opinion, have a real sense of the problems and challenges of the modern era, such as the “three evils” – terrorism, extremism and separatism, as well as illegal drug and arms trafficking. They counteract these threats with some success. Besides this, another priority for the SCO is the development of trade, economic and cultural cooperation. In addition to this, the SCO is not indifferent to the problems of Afghanistan and contributes to the stability and socio-economic revival of this country. In recent years, the SCO has also addressed the important task of combating the threats to information security of a political and criminal nature. Moreover, the range of issues that have been discussed in the framework of the SCO has expanded from year to year. Taking this into account, it can be said that the prospects of the SCO are very optimistic and the SCO’s role will grow from year to year. The further deepening and expansion of relations within the framework of the SCO will fulfil the interests of our state and the region as a whole.

By Her Excellency Mrs. Teresa Paraskevi Angelatou, Ambassador of Greece to the Kingdom of The Netherlands The Hellenic Republic assumed, for the fifth time, the Presidency to the Council of the European Union on January 2014 and concluded its mission at the end of June 2014 by handing the Presidency over to Italy. The Hellenic Presidency conducted its work at a period heavily affected by the ongoing economic crisis and its devastating effects in the social sphere. It was a period characterized by severe criticism of the EU and its way of functioning. This criticism and discontent were rather eloquently demonstrated during the recent European Parliament elections, when EU citizens proved to be quite vocal in their demand for a better Europe. A European Union Presidency is not about assuming responsibility of European affairs as a whole. For some it is a management job whereby one after the other, in six month intervals, the member-states are in charge of coordinating day to day business. For some, “it’s a dirty job but someone has to do it”, for others it’s a cause of celebration. But, what is important is that this way all member states have a chance to further integrate to this wonderful European idea and the people of each country to better feel and understand the importance and benefits of this exercise. All presidencies, no matter if held by a big or small country, inherit issues that are already being considered and discussed by previous presidencies, manage issues that arise during its six month tenure and contribute to the overall effort by initiating new themes. The Hellenic presidency was no exception to this rule. This Presidency, the third part of the Trio Presidency (Ireland, Lithuania, Greece) had four themes of action: Growth-Jobs-Cohesion, Further integration of the European Union-Eurozone, Migration-Borders-Mobility and a forth horizontal one, Maritime Policies. These objectives have taken into account the existing discussion on some extremely important matters and have added a personal touch, that of the sea policy, for reasons that you may easily imagine. The last three years were a very peculiar period, one that found Europe at a crossroads and ironically, enough, it found Greece in the middle, being seriously challenged. Some were predicting the so called “Grexit”, the idea that Greece should exit the Euro and some were even predicting that the Euro itself would not make it either… We proved them wrong! Though the European Union had problems, it has at the same time the capacity to solve those problems and move ahead. We proved that people across our Union can successfully make the difference and change Europe, make it stronger and safer, with more competitive economies and more stable democracies. The recent European elections were as important as they could be. Never was the European Union so big in size and never before has it been challenged from the inside as today. The European people did not vote against Europe. On the contrary they voted for more Europe and better Europe! Greece was determined that under its watch the European idea would be further solidified. Because Europe IS our common quest!    

By Jaime Victor B. Ledda, Ambassador of the Philippines There is plenty going on between the Philippines and The Netherlands.  The connection with the sea, shared values and advocacies in international affairs and centuries-old economic ties are fundamental elements that have brought our bilateral relations to where they are today. The Philippines established its embassy in The Hague with the presentation of credentials of the first Philippine Ambassador to Queen Juliana in May 1960.  Bilateral ties have been strengthened through the years with frequent official exchanges and the forging of important agreements in such fields as air transport, maritime cooperation, investments and avoidance of double taxation. Both countries pursue a foreign policy grounded on a rules-based system, the peaceful settlement of disputes, advocacy of human rights, and the promotion of economic diplomacy. The significance of the sea to each other’s security interests find common ground in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.  This is particularly relevant now that both countries have filed respective arbitration cases under that convention’s provisions. The Philippines sincerely appreciates the general international support for its decision to resort to the peaceful settlement of disputes and to seek international law-based solutions to address the West Philippine Sea situation.  This guiding principle for state relations has again been emphasized as crucial to maintaining peace and stability in the statements of this year’s EU-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ and ASEM Leaders’ Meetings. In the area of economic relations, the Netherlands is the Philippines’3^rd biggest investor and its 10^th largest export market. Robust maritime cooperation also distinguishes bilateral ties with the Philippines providing Dutch shipping companies with their primary external source of seafarers.  In her Manila visit last July, Dutch Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Minister Lilianne Ploumen saw opportunities for Dutch companies in disaster risk reduction programs and water management.  She noted the potential for intensified bilateral trade because of the Philippines’ fast growing economy, strong infrastructure spending and structural economic reforms. That potential is great considering the Philippines’ sizeable market, its productive and skilled population and economy with investment grade status.  Moreover, the Philippine government is committed in its implementation of good governance, transparency and inclusive growth policies. Upholding human rights is a high priority for the two countries.  Protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of Filipino migrants is one of the pillars of Philippine foreign policy and this agenda converges with the Netherlands in the fight against human trafficking. Our peoples share strong bonds with several foundations collaborating for various charitable causes including disabled children and education support.  This solidarity was demonstrated with the outpouring of support for Typhoon Haiyan victims in November 2013.  The Philippines stands by The Netherlands in strongly condemning the shooting down of MH Flight # 17 and joins the call to help reduce such tragedies. Indeed, there is plenty going on in bilateral relations as we strive together in securing our future through the rule of law and economic cooperation.      

                            By  H.E. Ms. Anniken Ramberg Krutnes , Ambassador of Norway to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With its unique nature, pristine wilderness and numerous resources, the Arctic region has mesmerized and captivated humankind for centuries. The Arctic is attracting increasing global interest, as it is a region with a number of resources and a region where climate change first appears. Norway is one of the Arctic countries. Developments in the Arctic are creating major opportunities, but it also entails major responsibilities for Norway. The Norwegian government therefore developed a High North policy framework almost a decade ago. Norway is a long and narrow country; from Oslo, it is the same distance to Rome, as to the city of Kirkenes, in the far north. The maritime area of Norway in the Arctic corresponds to the land area of Germany, France and Spain altogether. Yet the population of Norway is only 5,1 million, whereof a tenth lives in the country’s Arctic region. The Arctic is a region with abundant resources: renewable such as fish, and unrenewable such as minerals, oil and gas. Norway has developed a successful petroleum industry that coexists with sustainable fisheries in the Arctic, which are subject to the highest safety and environmental standards in the world. The long coastline is also apt for fish farming, and in total, some 33 million meals of Norwegian seafood is being consumed worldwide every day. Norway’s Arctic region is also a great place to see the northern lights. The amazing aurora borealis that plays on the sky attracts tourists from all over the world. Did you know that Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard, is the only place in the world where you are obliged to carry a weapon if you leave the main road? Svalbard is, in fact, the home of more than 3000 polar bears. The region is quite unique, being without daylight from the end of October until the beginning of February, and the sun never sets during the summer months. I will never forget the wonderful experience I once had on Svalbard, returning to Longyearbyen at midnight from a snowmobile-excursion wearing sunglasses. Climate change has significant impact on the natural environment in the Arctic, and the Arctic is in many ways also a barometer of global climate change. Melting of the Arctic ice cap has global implications, as it increases global warming, accelerates sea level rise and could change weather-patterns. New sea-lanes and changing transport routes to the north are also a consequence of climate change. Norway, together with the other Arctic countries, has a particular responsibility for addressing the challenges of the areas in a safe and environmentally sound way. Addressing the issue of climate change requires knowledge. Norway has thus invested heavily in research in the Arctic region. The Arctic is a region characterized by well-functioning international cooperation, respect for international law and good neighbourly relations. The UN Convention of the Law of the Sea is a key instrument in this regard. For political cooperation, the Arctic Council is an important arena. Our common goal must be to seize the opportunities and ensure sustainable management of resources in the Arctic. The region will then continue to captivate humankind in centuries to come.