Chinese President Xi Jinping has just wrapped up his two-nation trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and attended the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), during which he delivered a keynote speech.
His speech summarized the successful experience of SCO’s growth, emphasized upholding the Shanghai Spirit, strengthening solidarity and cooperation, and promoting the building of a closer SCO community with a shared future.
To transform such proposals as the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative into real actions, China announced at the summit a series of tangible measures, which are set to meet the needs of various countries.
China will establish a China-SCO base for training counter-terrorism personnel, host an industrial and supply chains forum, and set up a China-SCO Big Data Cooperation Center and provide developing countries in need with emergency humanitarian assistance of grain and other supplies worth 1.5 billion yuan (about US$214 million).
Meanwhile, the new and the largest round of SCO expansion at the summit also demonstrates the vitality, cohesion and attraction of the Shanghai Spirit, featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for the diversity of civilizations and the pursuit of common development.
Since its inception more than two decades ago, the SCO has upheld its bedrock Shanghai Spirit and gradually found a path for the growth and expansion of a new type of international organization.
Practice has shown that the Shanghai Spirit has always been the source of strength for the development of the SCO and the fundamental guide that the SCO must continue to follow in the years to come.
The world today is undergoing accelerating changes unlike any seen in a century’s time, and has entered a new phase of uncertainty and transformation. Human society has reached a crossroads and faces unprecedented challenges.
Under these new conditions, the SCO, as an important constructive force in international and regional affairs, should keep itself well-positioned in the face of changing international dynamics and more efficiently assume its historical mission.
Only by strengthening high-level exchanges and strategic communication, deepening mutual understanding and political trust, guarding against attempts by external forces to instigate “color revolutions” and jointly opposing interference in other countries’ internal affairs under any pretext, can countries safeguard their security and development interests and hold their future firmly in their own hands.
Countries should expand security cooperation and jointly uphold long-term peace and stability in the region. Over the years, with an eye on common security, the SCO member states have carried out practical and efficient security cooperation, which has ensured the overall security and stability in the region.
Countries need to deepen practical cooperation to materialize a shared vision of development and rejuvenation. All SCO members should leverage their unique strengths of geographical proximity and intertwined interests.
They should uphold the vision of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared growth to achieve integrated regional economic development, energize growth vitality and deliver a better life to their people.
Countries should enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges to consolidate public support for the long-term development of the SCO. The most solid foundation for SCO’s development lies in mutual learning among civilizations and the most profound strength lies in people-to-people ties.
They need to promote exchanges, dialogue and harmonious co-existence among different civilizations, deepen cooperation in such areas as education, science and technology, culture, health, media, radio and television, and build bridges of mutual understanding and amity between the peoples.
Faced with power politics, bullying and hegemonic practices, the SCO should assume its due international responsibility by safeguarding the U.N.-centered international system and the international order based on international law, promoting the common values of humanity, expanding SCO’s exchanges with other international and regional organizations, and improving global governance, so as to make greater contributions to world peace and development.
Building on past achievements, countries should continue to act in the Shanghai Spirit, work for the steady development of the SCO, and jointly build the region into a peaceful, stable, prosperous and beautiful home.