The Shanghai Spirit at 25: A new model for multilateral cooperation

Andijan's train station sits on the eastern edge of Uzbekistan's rail network and is gearing up for a larger role in regional connectivity.

The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway is still being built.

But when it opens, it will link Andijan through Kyrgyzstan to China's Xinjiang, cutting the travel time and pulling Eurasia closer together.

The railway is one of many examples of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members turning political trust built over the years into practical cooperation.

Today's connectivity efforts trace back to the cooperative approach that shaped the SCO from the start.

In the early 1990s, China, Russia and the newly independent Central Asian states faced the challenge of managing their borders.

In 1996, the five countries — China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — met in Shanghai and agreed to build military trust along their shared frontiers.

The next year in Moscow, they went further and cut forces in the border areas.

Uzbekistan joined in 2001, and the Shanghai Five became the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Lasting stability only works if countries trust each other.

Out of that experience came what everyone calls the Shanghai Spirit — mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for the diversity of civilizations and the pursuit of common development.

It marked a post-Cold War strategy of dealing with one another that favored finding consensus instead of lining up in opposing blocs.

Twenty-five years later, that approach has spread well beyond security.

The SCO is now the world's largest regional organization.