Xi Jinping's speech at the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (full text) Politics

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 4th

Keeping in mind the original mission, persisting in unity and cooperation to achieve greater development

——Speech at the 23rd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

the People's Republic of China President Xi Jinping

Dear Prime Minister Modi,

Dear colleagues

Thank you to India for hosting the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit as the rotating presidency.

This meeting will accept Iran as a member state and sign a memorandum of understanding on Belarus's obligation to join the organization, highlighting the vitality of the "SCO family". I congratulate Iran and Belarus.

 Dear Colleagues,

Ten years ago, in the face of changes in the world, times, and history, I proposed that humanity lives in the same global village and is increasingly becoming a community with a shared future where we have our own destiny. Over the past 10 years, the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind has been widely recognized and supported by the international community, and is being transformed from a concept into action and from a vision into reality. In this process, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has been at the forefront of the times, adhering to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, promoting the "Shanghai Spirit", and building a community with a shared future for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

——We uphold the fine tradition of mutual assistance and solidarity, firmly support the maintenance of each other's core interests, and become reliable partners on our respective paths of development and revitalization.

——We practice a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security concept, cater to the reasonable security concerns of all parties, coordinate and respond to various traditional and non-traditional security challenges, jointly safeguard regional peace and tranquility, and work together to create a good environment for the development and prosperity of regional countries.

——We adhere to the development concept of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing, align with the development strategies and regional cooperation initiatives of various countries, cultivate growth points for cooperation in areas such as economy and trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, finance, and technological innovation, and promote coordinated and linked economic development among countries.

——We inherit the spirit of good neighborly friendship, adhere to equality and mutual learning among civilizations, dialogue and inclusiveness, advocate peaceful coexistence and harmonious coexistence among different civilizations, expand cultural cooperation, and consolidate the public opinion foundation for the development of relations among countries.

——We uphold international fairness and justice, oppose hegemonic and bullying behaviors, expand our organization's circle of friends, build a partnership of dialogue, non confrontation, and partnership, and strengthen the progressive force in maintaining world peace and stability.

 Dear Colleagues,

The current world is intertwined with turmoil, and the century long changes are accelerating. Human society is facing unprecedented challenges. Unity or division? Peace or conflict? Cooperation or confrontation? Once again, it has become a question of the times. My answer is that the aspiration of people from all countries for a better life is our pursuit, and the trend of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win is unstoppable.

In recent years, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has been growing and expanding, facing both rare development opportunities and unprecedented risks and challenges. Indian poet Tagore once said, "Faith drives people to bravely face the unknown future." We must shoulder the heavy responsibility entrusted by the times, remember our original mission, adhere to unity and cooperation, and inject more certainty and positive energy into maintaining world peace and development. Therefore, I would like to propose the following suggestions.

Firstly, hold onto the correct direction and enhance unity and mutual trust. Over the past 20 years since its establishment, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has withstood the severe test of international changes and has always been moving towards the correct direction of seeking unity, increasing mutual trust, seeking development, and promoting cooperation. We have accumulated valuable practical experience and achieved hard won development results. It has been proven that as long as we have a broad vision, shoulder our responsibilities and missions, and eliminate various interferences, we can maintain and achieve the security and development interests of all member states.

We need to strengthen strategic communication and collaboration, advocate dialogue to bridge differences, cooperation to surpass competition, truly respect each other's core interests and major concerns, and firmly support each other in achieving development and revitalization. We should independently formulate foreign policies based on the overall and long-term interests of the region. We must be highly vigilant against external forces inciting a "new cold war" and creating confrontations within the region. We firmly oppose any country interfering in its internal affairs or instigating a "color revolution" for any reason, and firmly grasp the future and destiny of our own development and progress in our own hands.

Secondly, maintain regional peace and ensure common security. It is our common responsibility to achieve long-term peace and security in the region. China is willing to work with all parties to implement global security initiatives, adhere to resolving differences and contradictions between countries through dialogue and consultation, promote political solutions to international and regional hot issues, and build a strong regional security barrier.

To enhance the level of security cooperation within our organization, we will continue to carry out joint actions and severely crack down on the "three forces" such as East Turkestan, drug smuggling, cyber and transnational organized crime. We need to accelerate the improvement of our organization's law enforcement and security cooperation mechanism, and expand cooperation in non-traditional security fields such as data security, biosecurity, and outer space security. We need to continue to play the role of coordination and cooperation mechanisms among Afghanistan's neighboring countries, increase humanitarian support for Afghanistan, promote the Afghan authorities to build a broad and inclusive political framework, and embark on the path of peaceful reconstruction.

Thirdly, focus on pragmatic cooperation and accelerate economic recovery. Promoting economic growth is a common task for regional countries. China is willing to work with all parties to implement global development initiatives, adhere to the correct direction of economic globalization, oppose protectionism, unilateral sanctions, and the generalization of national security concepts, oppose the practice of "building walls and barriers" and "decoupling and breaking links", and strive to expand the cake of mutually beneficial cooperation, so that development results can benefit people of all countries more and more fairly.

We will strengthen the connection between high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" and national development strategies and regional cooperation initiatives, deepen trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, accelerate the construction of port infrastructure and regional international logistics channels, and ensure the stability and smoothness of the regional industrial chain supply chain. This year marks the 10th anniversary of my "the Belt and Road" initiative. China will hold the third "the Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum. All parties are welcome to participate in the forum activities and work together to pave this road of happiness for the world.

The Chinese side suggests expanding the local currency settlement share of the Organization's countries, expanding cooperation on sovereign digital currencies, and promoting the establishment of the Organization's development bank. The Chinese side is willing to share market opportunities and development experience, implement the action of empowering young professional farmers, rely on the China Shanghai Cooperation Organization Big Data Cooperation Center to carry out digital technology talent training, and hold the organization's National Green Development Forum.

Our organization has established multiple practical ministerial level conference cooperation mechanisms, and China has also established cooperation platforms such as local economic and trade cooperation demonstration zones and agricultural technology exchange and training demonstration bases. We should actively play the role of these mechanisms and platforms, make every effort to solve practical cooperation bottlenecks and difficulties, and promote high-quality economic development in the countries of our organization.

Fourthly, strengthen communication and mutual learning to promote mutual understanding among the people. The harmonious development of diverse civilizations is a beautiful vision for the people of regional countries. We welcome all parties to work together to implement the Global Civilization Initiative, promote inclusive coexistence of different civilizations, and promote mutual understanding and affinity among people of all countries.

We will continue to deepen cooperation in fields such as education, technology, culture, health, sports, and media, support the work of non-governmental organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Good Neighborhood and Friendship Cooperation Committee, and hold more cultural exchange activities. In the next three years, China will provide 1000 international Chinese teacher scholarships and 3000 "Chinese Bridge" summer camps to the countries of this organization, and invite 100 young scientists to participate in scientific research exchanges in China. China will also hold themed activities such as rural revitalization and addressing climate change, and welcomes active participation from all parties.

Fifth, practice multilateralism and improve global governance. Fairness and impartiality are the unanimous pursuit of regional countries. We must promote the common values of all mankind, firmly uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law, oppose hegemonism and power politics, promote global governance towards a more just and reasonable direction, and advance the modernization of human society through joint efforts to continuously promote fairness in rights, opportunities, and rules. We need to support our organization in strengthening exchanges with observer countries, dialogue partners, and international and regional organizations such as the United Nations, and jointly become builders of world peace, contributors to global development, and maintainers of international order.

 Dear Colleagues,

At present, the Chinese people are promoting Chinese path to modernization under the leadership of the CPC. The main characteristics of Chinese path to modernization are the huge population, common prosperity of all people, coordination of material civilization and spiritual civilization, harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and peaceful development, creating a new form of human civilization. We are willing to use the new achievements of Chinese path to modernization to provide new development opportunities for all countries in the world, including the SCO countries, and promote the building of a better world.

 Dear Colleagues,

The Chinese side congratulates President Tokayev on taking over as the President of the Council of Heads of State, and is willing to actively support the work of the Kazakh presidency along with other member countries.

The great road is not alone, and everyone's actions go far. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization conforms to the current trend of the times and aligns with the direction of human progress, and will definitely continue to develop and grow through our joint efforts.

Thank you all.