Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State today, on the subject of the conference, “Together Toward Sustainable Peace, Development, and Prosperity.” And while he certainly outlined a possible and optimistic road forward, he did not flinch on the danger of failure.
He stated that the SCO was founded, after “the hard lessons of the Cold War,” to address “ the earnest aspirations of the world for peace and development... Over the past 25 years, the SCO has traveled an extraordinary journey. Its biggest achievement is that it has steadily grown into a new type of regional cooperation organization,” the new type needed—and it also now represents “the largest land area and population and enormous development potential.”
Now: “Twenty-five years later, ... [a] transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe. The rivalry is intensifying between dialogue and confrontation, win-win and zero-sum, and multilateralism and unilateralism. The shadow of war continues to haunt the world. At such a crossroads with humanity’s future at stake, the SCO should step forward to shoulder its historical responsibility and steer the course for the future.”
That said, the title of his speech, “Toward Higher-Quality Development of The Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” was clear and the context of China’s initiatives was set.
“First, we should stay committed to putting development first and open up the prospects for shared prosperity... China takes the SCO as a priority area for promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and implementing the Global Development Initiative.” A couple of projects he cited were “the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor” and the establishment of “a China-SCO port economic cooperation center in Tianjin.”
Following on development was, second, common security. “China stands ready to work with all parties to act on the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, and make our organization an important platform for implementing the Global Security Initiative,” which includes “a sensible, coordinated, and balanced approach to nuclear security, and support a stronger multilateral partnership for nuclear safety and security.”
Third is the Global Civilization Initiative to “cement the foundation for everlasting friendship. Diversity of civilization and culture is a salient feature of our region. We should fully appreciate the distinctiveness of every country in its history, culture, social system, and development stage, and build cooperation networks between legislatures, political parties, institutions of education, think tanks” and such.
“Fourth, we should stay committed to dialogue and consultation and strive for more equitable and orderly governance. We should always advocate that all countries, regardless of their size, are equal, and that regional affairs should be discussed by all countries to bridge differences and build consensus, properly handle differences through dialogue and consultation, and meet common challenges through multilateral collaboration.” This is all part of China’s Global Governance Initiative. “That the SCO Plus Meeting this year is focused on strengthening the role of the United Nations and building a multipolar world in itself is a successful move to that end... On Ukraine, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and other international and regional hotspot issues, China stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with all parties, continue tackling both the symptoms and root causes of these issues, and promote political settlement.”
He concluded: “Colleagues, when purpose guides us, no path is too long; when resolve strengthens us, no barrier is too high.” The path is “the development strategy of the SCO for the next decade,” now with an even “higher quality, so as to make greater contributions to a community with a shared future for humanity.”
