Episode Details

President Xi Jinping called on Tuesday for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to prioritize development and security to usher in a future of shared prosperity and foster an environment of universal security.

Xi made the remarks when addressing the 26th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, which was held in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. He underlined the need for the SCO to remain committed to dialogue and consultation for more equitable and orderly governance.

In his speech, Xi hailed the extraordinary journey of the regional organization over the past 25 years, saying that it has grown into a new type of regional cooperation grouping with the largest land area and population and enormous development potential. 

Founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the SCO now comprises 10 member states, two observer states and 15 dialogue partners.

Xi said that the most valuable spiritual asset of the regional grouping is that it pioneered, and has since invariably followed, the Shanghai Spirit featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for the diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development.

Its most important cooperation experience is that it has found the right way of coexistence, featuring nonalliance, nonconfrontation and not targeting any third party, enabling countries in the region to build a common home together, he added.

As the world is undergoing accelerated changes unseen in a century, with the intensifying rivalry between dialogue and confrontation, win-win and zero-sum, and multilateralism and unilateralism, Xi urged the SCO to step forward to shoulder its historical responsibility and proactively steer the course for the future.

He also called for the SCO to advocate universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, solidify cooperation in traditional fields such as trade, investment, mutual connectivity, energy and resources, and expand cooperation in emerging fields like artificial intelligence, digital economy, green industry and green mining in order to deepen and upgrade regional cooperation.

China sees the SCO as a priority area for promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and implementing the Global Development Initiative, he said.

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