Leaders of member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have signed singed the Qingdao Declaration. The signing ceremony involved the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan took place at the 18th Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State that took place in in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province on June 10.
Russian media reports say the SCO leaders adopted a total of 17 documents at the summit, which particularly include documents endorsing the 2018-2022 Action Plan to implement the Treaty for Long-term Good-Neighborly Relations, Friendship and Cooperation between the SCO states and the 2019-2020 Program for Cooperation in countering terrorism, separatism and extremism.
The leaders also signed a decision to approve the 2018-2023 Anti-Drug Strategy and an Action Plan to implement it. Besides, leaders of all the SCO countries also signed an information statement, according to RIA Novosti.
The Declaration, in particular, says that amid the increasingly diverse and multi-polar geopolitical situation and growing uncertainties, the international community is in urgent need of seeking common ground and effectively coping with global challenges.
According to the document, SCO members have made "building a community with a shared future for humanity" a common concept.
“The inclusion of India and Pakistan into the SCO has lifted cooperation in various areas to a new level,” it said, according to Xinhua.
Member states reiterated their commitment to the Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation of the SCO Member States and would continue to develop good-neighborly relations and friendship in areas of common concern, including building shared borders into permanently peaceful and friendly ones.
Member states proposed that a comprehensive United Nations treaty on fighting international terrorism should be passed by reaching a consensus based on UN documents such as the Charter of the United Nations.
Member states recognized the special role of the SCO regional counter-terrorist agencies in jointly combating the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, and safeguarding regional security.
SCO members support settlement of global conflicts by political and diplomatic means within the framework of basic codes and principles of international law to achieve general security and stability, said the document.
It is very important to keep implementing the comprehensive agreement on Iran nuclear issue, and the Korean Peninsula issue should be solved only through dialogue and consultation as well as political and diplomatic approaches, according to the declaration.
They also support improvement of the global economic governance system and development of economic, trade and investment cooperation while opposing fragmentation of international trade relations and trade protectionism in any form.
Fruitful multilateral and bilateral cooperation projects would be held in culture, education, science and technology, health, tourism, folk art and other fields to promote cultural communication and people-to-people exchanges, said the document.
The SCO was founded at a Summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently has eight full members — China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are four observer states, and SCO’s dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. ACEAN, CIS, Turkmenistan and the United Nations are guest attendances.
Thanks to the membership expansion, the SCO has grown into the largest regional organization for comprehensive cooperation in the world, in terms of both the area it covers and the population it represents. With 3.1 billion people, it now carries a bigger heft and plays a more important role on the world stage.
