TASHKENT (Xinhua) — Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Public Diplomacy Centre in Uzbekistan Tuesday held a round table to discuss SCO’s practice in strengthening international relations through public diplomacy.

The international event, titled Public diplomacy as a factor of international relations: the practice of the SCO, was organized by the centre and Uzbek University of World Economy and Diplomacy.

Members of Uzbekistan’s Senate, government officials, national and foreign experts, and the representatives of diplomatic missions of the SCO member states and observer countries took part in the round table, according to the Public Diplomacy Centre’s statement.

The round table participants discussed the role of public diplomacy in today’s world and the SCO member states’ experience in using it as an effective tool of international relations, according to the centre.

The SCO, established in 2001, now includes China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, accounting for over 20% of the global economy and nearly half of the world population.

In June 2017, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed an initiative to create a public diplomatic centre in Tashkent at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of SCO in Astana, Kazakhstan.