President stresses Shanghai Spirit as group charts future

President Xi Jinping emphasized on Monday the importance of staying true to the Shanghai Spirit that has guided the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to grow into the world's largest regional organization, and he urged greater resolve and more practical measures to promote the SCO's sustainable development.

Xi made the remarks when addressing the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, which was attended by leaders of member countries and heads of the organization's permanent bodies in the port city of Tianjin in northern China.

Noting that the SCO now boasts the participation of 26 countries, cooperation covering more than 50 areas, and a combined economic output of nearly $30 trillion, Xi said that the organization's international influence and appeal are increasing day by day.

"Looking ahead, we should carry forward the Shanghai Spirit in a world fraught with challenges and changes, forge ahead with solid steps, and better tap into the potential of our organization," he said.

The Shanghai Spirit is a set of principles — centered on mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development — that the SCO has adhered to since its founding in Shanghai in 2001.

Over the past 24 years, the organization has expanded from six founding members to a 26-nation family spanning Asia, Europe and Africa.

Xi stressed that member states of the SCO, who are all friends and partners, should seek common ground while putting aside differences.

"Shared aspirations are the source of strength and advantage, and the will to seek commonality while shelving differences reflects vision and wisdom," Xi said, encouraging all parties to make the pie of cooperation bigger and fully utilize the endowment of every country.

To pursue mutual benefit and win-win results, he called on the SCO countries to better align their development strategies, leverage the strengths of their mega-sized markets and economic complementarity among them, and enhance cooperation across various areas including energy, infrastructure and green industry.

Highlighting the need to enhance mutual understanding and friendship through people-to-people exchanges, he said SCO member countries should jointly cultivate a garden of civilizations in which all cultures flourish in prosperity and harmony through mutual enlightenment.

To uphold fairness and justice, Xi called on the SCO to promote a correct historical perspective on World War II, and oppose the Cold War mentality, bloc confrontation and bullying practices.

"We should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and make the global governance system more just and equitable," he said.

Xi also called for continuous SCO reform to improve its institutional structure and make its decision-making more scientific and its actions more efficient.

He said that the newly established SCO Universal Center for Countering Security Challenges and Threats and the SCO Anti-Drug Center should be put into use, and an SCO development bank should be set up as soon as possible, to provide stronger underpinnings for security and economic cooperation among member states.

Xi stressed that China always aligns its development with that of the SCO and with the aspirations of the people of member states for a better life.

To date, China's investment stock in other SCO member states has exceeded $84 billion, and its annual bilateral trade with other SCO member states has surpassed $500 billion.

"China's cumulative trade with other SCO countries has surpassed $2.3 trillion, hitting ahead of schedule the target that I had set," he said.

In the latest move of taking real actions to ensure better development of the SCO, Xi announced that China will implement 100"small and beautiful" livelihood projects in member states that need them, provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to SCO member states within this year, and issue an additional 10 billion yuan in loans to the member banks of the SCO Interbank Consortium over the next three years.

Starting next year, China will double the current number of SCO-specific scholarships and launch an SCO innovative PhD program to jointly train high-caliber talent in academic as well as scientific and technological research, he added.

Furthermore, Xi said that China will establish 10 vocational education Luban Workshops in SCO member states and provide 10,000 human resources training opportunities in the next five years.

So far, China has established 10 Luban Workshops in SCO countries, cultivating the technical and skilled personnel needed for the economic and social development of partner countries.

Participants said at the meeting that jointly building the Belt and Road with China has enabled all countries to share China's new development opportunities, and the three major global initiatives proposed by China have brought certainty and stability to a turbulent world.

They pledged to continue practicing the Shanghai Spirit, build consensus, and strengthen cooperation in political, security, economic, trade, scientific, technological and cultural fields.

They also agreed to coordinate efforts to tackle both traditional and nontraditional security threats, resolutely combat the "three evil forces "of terrorism, extremism and separatism, and promote higher-quality development of the SCO through deeper cooperation.

The participants also stressed that, in the face of a complex and volatile international situation, SCO member states should enhance strategic coordination, safeguard the victorious outcomes of WWII, and oppose unilateralism, hegemonism, and protectionism, among others.

During the summit, leaders of the SCO member states signed and issued the Tianjin Declaration, accepted Laos as a dialogue partner, and adopted 24 outcome documents on strengthening cooperation in sectors such as security, economy, cultural exchanges and organizational building.

They also approved a development strategy for the organization in the 2026-35 period and issued a statement on the 80th anniversary of the victory in WWII and of the founding of the United Nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the meeting that the SCO has brought together like-minded partners committed to shaping a just, multipolar world order.

Among the outcome documents, he said that the Tianjin Declaration reflects the agreed-upon approaches of member states to pressing issues on the global and regional agenda.

In his speech, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that mutual understanding and solidarity among SCO member states are the key to preserving peace in the region at a time when the foundation of global security and stability is being undermined by factors such as the escalation of conflicts and the fragmentation of the global trading system.

"We believe that the SCO's voice should be even more compelling and resolute, reflecting our common political will and serving as a call for decisive action in the name of a peaceful future and sustainable progress," he said.

The summit in Tianjin was the largest in SCO history.

Li Yonghui, a research fellow of Russian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that more and more countries are joining the SCO family now.

"Countries joined the organization in pursuit of development, but their interests and priorities are not identical. Therefore, it is necessary for them to respect the differences, maintain strategic communication, build up consensus and strengthen solidarity and collaboration, in order to promote a bigger role for the organization in the global arena," she said.