The SCO Youth Council is being established on the initiative of the Russian Youth Union and the Youth Public Chamber of Russia jointly with the Russian Foreign Ministry. They offered its concept at a meeting of representatives of the heads of state of SCO countries in Beijing in May 2007 where most its participants supported it.

Taking part in the two-day constitutive conference are representatives of national youth organisations of SCO member states - the Congress of Youth of Kazakhstan, the Zhas Ottan youth wing of the Kazakh People’s Democratic party, Chinese National Youth Federation, Youth Public Council of Kyrgyzstan, Russian Youth Union, Russian Youth Public Chamber and the Tajikistani Youth Union.

Governor of the Sverdlovsk region Eduard Rossel at the opening of the youth conference on Monday called for “setting the tone” for the summit of SCO member states that will be held in Yekaterinburg in June. “For the foundation of a strong, viable and efficient organisation the Sverdlovsk region is the most suitable place. Our Urals region is well known for originating many initiatives in the sphere of politics, lawmaking, public life that were recognised afterwards all over Russia,” the governor stressed.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is an intergovernmental mutual-security organisation, which was founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Except for Uzbekistan, the other countries had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organisation.

The SCO is primarily centred around its member nations’ Central Asian security-related concerns, often describing the main threats it confronts as being terrorism, separatism and extremism. However evidence is growing that its activities in the area of social development of its member states is increasing fast.

In October 2007, the SCO signed an agreement with the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, to broaden cooperation on issues such as security, crime, and drug trafficking. Joint action plans between the two organisations are planned to be signed by early 2008 in Beijing.

According to the Charter of the SCO, summits of the Council of Heads of State shall be held annually at alternating venues. The locations of these summits follow the alphabetical order of the member state’s name in Russian. The charter also dictates that the Council of Heads of Government (that is, the Prime Ministers) shall meet annually in a place previously decided upon by the council members. The Council of Foreign Ministers is supposed to hold a summit one month before the annual summit of Heads of State. Extraordinary meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers can be called by any two member states.