Commentary: SCO en route to promising future with Shanghai Spirit as guide

BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has just wrapped up his two-nation trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and attendance at the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), during which he delivered a keynote speech.

His words 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 translate 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 RMB yuan (about 214 million U.S. dollars).

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 diversity of civilizations and 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 unseen in a century, 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 better assume its historical mission.

Countries should enhance mutual support and work together to cope with complex changes in the external environment. In today's world, conflicts are looming large between unity and division, cooperation and confrontation. The SCO is under great test in maintaining regional peace and security, and its member states face severe challenges in maintaining their own security and stability.

Only by strengthening high-level exchanges and strategic communication, deepening mutual understanding and political trust, guarding against attempts by external forces to instigate "color revolution" 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.

Amid a complex and volatile regional security landscape, it is all the more important to stay true to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, constantly upgrade the level of law enforcement and security cooperation within the SCO, and strictly prevent terrorist and extremist forces from destabilizing regional security.

Countries need to deepen practical cooperation to materialize a shared vision of development and rejuvenation. Common development is real development, and sustainable development is good development. All SCO countries are at a crucial stage of development. They 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.

Countries should uphold multilateralism and work together to make the international order more just and equitable. As a Chinese saying goes, "power may win for the time being, but justice will prevail for the long run."

Faced with power politics, bullying and hegemonic practices, the SCO should assume its due international responsibility by safeguarding the UN-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 such as the UN, and improving global governance, so as to make greater contributions to world peace and development.

Over the years, with its own development, China has propelled the development of countries in the region, brought more benefits to people around the world, and continuously injected vigorous impetus into the SCO development.

China-proposed initiatives, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and a community with a shared future for mankind, have been included in the outcome documents of the SCO mechanism. Its proposals, such as the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, have also been highly praised by leaders of various parties within the SCO.

At the summit, China called for continued efforts to achieve the complementarity of the BRI with national development strategies and regional cooperation initiatives. This call has received active response from relevant parties, who agreed that the BRI is an important engine for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

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.