To carry forward Shanghai Spirit and strengthen solidarity, coordination

Photo shows the Qingdao SCODA Pearl International Expo Center in the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA) in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province. (Photo by Yang Xuemei/People's Daily Online)

"Carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit: SCO in Action." This is a slogan raised by China after it took the rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for 2024-2025 in July this year. It clearly demonstrates that the SCO is not about high-sounding rhetoric, but about concrete action.

China has fully started the work as the rotating presidency. It will host over 100 meetings and events within the SCO framework to further deepen practical cooperation in various fields and build a closer SCO community with a shared future.

As the first international organization with China as a founding member state and named after a Chinese city, the SCO, guided by the Shanghai Spirit since its establishment in 2001, has been consolidating political mutual trust, enhancing good-neighborliness and friendship, safeguarding regional security, and strengthening practical cooperation, playing a significant role in maintaining global and regional stability and development.

From a regional organization with six founding members to a big family with 26 countries, the SCO has shown stronger vitality, cohesiveness and appeal. It has embarked on a path of peaceful development and set an example for building a new type of international relations.

As the world is faced with accelerating changes unseen in a century, the human society is standing at a crossroads of history again. The SCO always stands on the right side of history, fairness and justice, and strives for greater development through solidarity and cooperation, which contributes significantly to regional and global peace, stability and development, as well as the well-being of the people of SCO member states.

As a founding member, China has always taken the SCO as a diplomatic priority. On July 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at "Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus" meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, during which he proposed to build a common home of solidarity and mutual trust, a common home of peace and tranquility, a common home of prosperity and development, a common home of good-neighborliness and friendship, and a common home of fairness and justice, drawing a new blueprint for SCO's development.

The SCO enjoys strong vitality and momentum of cooperation. This, in the final analysis, is attributed to the Shanghai Spirit. China has promised that after taking the rotating presidency, it will work with SCO partners in the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, and join hands with more countries and international organizations that identify with the Shanghai Spirit to strive for common progress and foster brighter prospects for a community with a shared future for mankind.

The 2024 Shanghai Cooperation Organization Ice Hockey Tournament kicks off at the Harbin Ice Hockey Arena, northeast China's Heilongjiang province, October 12, 2024. (Photo from the WeChat official account of Heilongjiang Provincial Sports Bureau)

The 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO to be held in China next year is the most important event within the framework of the SCO and the most core event during China's presidency.

In June 2018, China successfully hosted the 18th SCO Summit in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, marking a milestone in SCO's development. This summit comprehensively mapped out SCO's future path and development and reached important consensus that exceeded expectations.

China will host a friendly, united and fruitful SCO summit next year, which is expected to build more consensus and draw a blueprint for development. The meetings and events held by China during the summit will focus on political mutual trust, common security, shared prosperity, people-to-people exchanges, and the effectiveness of the SCO mechanism, which aim to further deepen practical cooperation and inject new momentum into SCO's development.

Modernization is the shared goal of all countries in the SCO. China proposes that 2025 be designated as the SCO Year of Sustainable Development, and will carry out a series of cooperation initiatives and actions in the eight key areas of cooperation under the Global Development Initiative.

It aims to enhance cooperation in trade and investment, energy, digital economy, modern agriculture, and green development, and continue advancing high-quality alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and the development strategies of regional countries for the joint pursuit of modernization.

Making global governance more just and equitable is essential for addressing the prominent challenges in today's world and a vital path to creating a better future for humanity.

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, a summit declaration will be issued, expressing the unified stance of the member states on major international and regional issues, and contributing SCO's strength to coping with global challenges.

In response to the profound changes in the international landscape, China will uphold the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, carry forward the Shanghai Spirit, and strengthen solidarity and collaboration, so as to further the growth and development of the SCO, ensure it leads the trend of the times, and make greater contributions to regional and global peace, stability, development, and prosperity.

Participants from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries share their perspectives with lecturers during a seminar on poverty reduction and development in 2024. (Photo from the WeChat official account of the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs)