Qingdao summit ushers in new era for SCO

BEIJING (Xinhua) – The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit has injected fresh impetus to the building of an SCO community with a shared future and ushered in a new era for cooperation among member states.

In his speech at the summit, President Xi Jinping offered his insights on development, security, cooperation, civilization and global governance, enriching the Shanghai Spirit and giving the SCO new historic missions.

Xi spoke of the need to build up strength of unity and mutual trust, strengthen the foundation for shared peace and security, build a powerful engine to achieve common development and prosperity, forge closer ties through cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and expand partnership networks of international cooperation.

These proposals are indeed in line with the national conditions of the member states and the interests of their peoples.

The summit held in east China’s port city of Qingdao marked the first gathering of leaders of all eight member states since India and Pakistan were admitted as full members last year.

At the summit, member states stressed unity, coordination, and common development.

They made “building a community with a shared future for humanity” a common concept in the Qingdao Declaration. This move demonstrated their recognition of the Chinese philosophy and firmly upheld the building of an SCO community with a shared future.

At present, the world is faced with challenges such as hegemony, power politics, security threats, unilateralism and trade protectionism.

The SCO is confident in addressing the problems as member states deepen partnerships, prioritize cooperation on security, follow the trend of economic globalization and regional integration, enhance people-to-people connectivity and mutual learning in culture, and expand international exchanges and cooperation.

In doing so, the SCO member states will be able to achieve lasting stability and common prosperity.

Concrete initiatives have been made at the two-day summit, with 23 cooperative documents in diverse fields signed, more than any previous SCO summit.

China announced plans to train 2,000 law enforcement officers for all parties in the next three years through China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation and other platforms, set up a 30-billion-yuan ($4.7 billion) equivalent special lending facility within the framework of the SCO Inter-bank Consortium, and support building a demonstration area in Qingdao for China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation.

Today, the SCO stands as a comprehensive regional cooperation organization that covers the largest area and population in the world. Its member states, namely, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, account for about 20 percent of the global economy and 40 percent of its population.

It has also become a significant organization in promoting world peace and development, and safeguarding fairness and justice in the world.

Standing at a new historic starting point, the SCO will make greater contributions to the lofty cause of human progress.