The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Friday approved the draft of the "2030 Strategy of Energy Cooperation Development" to further bolster energy ties among the nine member countries in the Eurasian political-security grouping, according to a statement by the SCO secretariat.
The draft strategy was approved at the fourth meeting of the SCO Energy Ministers in Astana on Friday, which took place under the Kazakh presidency.
The SCO statement said that Belarus and Turkiye also attended the meeting of the energy ministers. The meeting was chaired by Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev.
At the meeting, Satkaliyev highlighted that new energy strategy was aimed at developing the "transit potential" of energy resources in the SCO orbit and diversifying export routes, creating a new "energy system", modernising the traditional energy resources as well as increased cooperation in developing green technologies.
He underscored that it was imperative to raise the level of "energy security" among SCO participants, given the fact that the sector was an "important" element of cooperation among the nine nations.
The minister said that SCO states accounted for a third of the global GDP output, 60 percent of the Eurasian territory, 42 percent of the world's population and 15 percent of global trade.
"The parties discussed the development of the energy industry, the possibilities of attracting investments and financing in order to implement projects and programs in this area," the SCO statement reads.
Meanwhile, SCO's Deputy Secretary General Sohail Khan told the meeting that it was critical for the member states to increase "mutually beneficial cooperation" in the energy sector, as the grouping comprised the world's biggest energy exports as well as the largest consumers of crude and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
Energy cooperation in the SCO sphere has become all the more important since the Ukraine Conflict as Russia has significantly boosted its exports to China and India, the world's fastest-growing major economies.
Russia ranked as the biggest source of crude for both China and India in 2023, according to official data from respective governments.