Xi Keynotes Shanghai Cooperation Organization: ‘Ushering In a Better Future’

Sept. 3—At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, China, host President Xi Jinping chaired the Heads of State Council, and delivered the keynote address Sept. 1. 

Xi reported that since its founding 24 years ago, the SCO had established a series of firsts: “We were the first to set up a military confidence-building mechanism in our border areas, turning our extensive borders into a bond of friendship, mutual trust and cooperation...We were the first to launch Belt and Road cooperation...We were the first to put forth the vision of global governance featuring extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit as an effort to practice true multilateralism.”

A quarter of a century later, “The SCO has grown into the world’s largest regional organization, with the participation of 26 countries, cooperation covering more than 50 areas, and a combined economic output of nearly US$30 trillion. Its international influence and appeal are increasing day by day.” Moving forward, Xi argued that the SCO should strengthen its advantages: “We should make the pie of cooperation bigger, and fully utilize the endowment of every country, so that we can fulfill our responsibility for peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region.”

Xi added: “Second, we should pursue mutual benefit and win-win results. We need to better align our development strategies and promote the high-quality implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, so that in planning and building relevant projects together and benefiting from them together we can strengthen the momentum of regional development and improve the well-being of the people. We should leverage the strengths of our mega-sized markets and economic complementarity between member states, and improve trade and investment facilitation.”

This means developing all of Eurasia—for starters: “The vast land of Asia and Europe, a cradle of ancient civilizations where the earliest exchanges between the East and the West took place, has been a driving force behind human progress.” Xi stressed that “Going forward, China … will provide RMB2 billion yuan in grant to SCO member states within this year, and will issue an additional RMB10 billion yuan in loan to the member banks of the SCO Interbank Consortium over the next three years.” 

Xi observed in conclusion, “As a Chinese saying goes, ‘Where will prevails, no boundary holds.’|"