Your Excellency President Karimov,rnDear colleagues,rn It gives me great pleasure to meet you all in Tashkent, a city with a history of several thousand years. Since assuming the chairmanship of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO), Uzbekistan has done a large amount of effective work for the development of this organization. China highly appreciates its efforts.I wish to express heartfelt thanks to President Karimov and the government of Uz-bekistan for the thoughtful reparations and arrangements for this meeting.rn