Senior Chinese diplomat Zhang Ming takes charge of Secretary-General of SCO

China's senior diplomat Zhang Ming has taken charge as the new Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in which India is a member.

Zhang has taken charge from Vladimir Norov, former Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan from January 1 for a three-year term.

He was until recently China's ambassador to the European Union.

The Beijing headquartered SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

Commenting on his appointment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here on Wednesday that he "is a veteran diplomat with great experience in multilateral diplomacy,".

I am sure like his predecessors, he will achieve new progress," he said.

As the host country of the SCO secretariat, China will continue to support the secretariat and the Secretary-General, and will work with other parties to uphold the Shanghai spirit, deepen political security, trade, connectivity and cultural cooperation and forge a closer SCO community relations in the future, and contribute to SCO strength in promoting regional, global peace and development," Wang said.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.