President Xi Jinping delivers speech at SCO summit in Bishkek

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday put forward a four-point proposal at the 26th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.

In his speech at the summit, Xi said this year marks the 25th founding anniversary of the SCO.

He pointed out that 25 years ago, safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests became a shared consensus among countries in the region in the face of the profound lessons of the Cold War, the real threat posed by the "three evil forces," and the strong aspirations of people in various countries for peace and development.

The SCO thus emerged, and the organization has increasingly demonstrated its strong vitality and dynamism, Xi added.

Over the past 25 years, the SCO has gone through an extraordinary journey, Xi said, noting that its most significant achievement has been its gradual transformation into a new type of regional cooperation organization that spans the largest geographical area, represents the largest population and possesses enormous development potential in the world.

The SCO's most valuable spiritual asset is the pioneering proposal and steadfast adherence to the "Shanghai Spirit" of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development, he said.

The SCO's most important experience for cooperation is that it has found the right way of coexistence featuring non-alliances, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party while bringing countries in the region together to build a common home, he added.

Xi said that 25 years on, as profound changes unseen in a century are accelerating, the rivalry is intensifying between dialogue and confrontation, win-win cooperation and zero-sum, and multilateralism and unilateralism, and the shadow of war continues to haunt the world.

At the crossroads concerning the future of humanity, the SCO should shoulder its historic responsibility and take the initiative in steering the course of history, he said.

Xi called on the SCO to stay committed to putting development first and open up the prospects for shared prosperity.

The SCO, Xi said, should champion a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, consolidate cooperation in traditional areas such as trade and investment, connectivity, energy and resources, and expand cooperation in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, the digital economy, green industry and green mining.

China sees the SCO as a priority area for the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road and implementation of the Global Development Initiative and will continue to host events such as the SCO Digital Economy Forum and the SCO Agricultural Expo, Xi said.