(Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
Chinese President Xi Jinping met the foreign ministers and the heads of the permanent bodies of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Beijing on Tuesday in Beijing on Tuesday to participate in the meeting of the Board of Foreign Affairs of the OCS member states.
He noted that over the past 24 years since its foundation, the OCS has always defended the spirit of Shanghai, becoming a mature and robust organization, while demonstrating remarkable vitality.
He said that China had always given the OCS priority to its neighborhood diplomacy, and that it undertook to make the organization more substantial and stronger, to preserve regional security and stability, to promote the development and prosperity of the member states, as well as to build a narrower shared community.
Since China assumed the rotating presidency last July, it actively carried out activities and advances cooperation, all the parties stating concrete measures to build a more prosperous home for the OCS, he added.
XI expressed the hope of meeting the leaders of other member states at the OCS summit, scheduled for this year in Tianjin in China, in order to discuss the future development of the organization.
He pointed out that, faced with a turbulent and changing international landscape, the OCS should keep the course, firm confidence, act effectively and play a more proactive role in instilling more stability and positive energy in the world.
Mr. XI called the OCS to consider confidence and mutual benefits as the basis of cooperation, equality and consultation as a mode of engagement, respect for different civilizations as a means of promoting harmony and inclusion, and common development as a way to shared prosperity, in order to guarantee that the Shanghai spirit continues to light the way towards the construction of a shared future shared future.
The organization must respond to the aspirations of peoples and actively engage in the deepening of cooperation, said Mr. XI. He called for the improvement of mechanisms to combat threats and security challenges, better alignment of member states development strategies with cooperation initiatives such as the “belt and road” initiative, and to the facilitation of staff exchanges and relations between peoples.
The Chinese President also called to unite efforts to firmly oppose hegemony, power policy and intimidation, in order to promote a more egalitarian and more balanced multipolar world. He underlined the need for in -depth consultation, a joint contribution and shared advantages in order to advance a more inclusive and universally beneficial economic globalization.
He added that the OCS should unify and direct the global south in the construction of a fairer and more equitable global governance system, by pooling considerable forces to build a community of the future shared for humanity.
Wang Yi, in his capacity as president of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of OCS member states, reported on the progress made in various fields since China has occupied the position of rotating presidency, as well as preparations for the OCS summit in Tianjin.
On behalf of the foreign delegations, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, said that thanks to his unwavering commitment to the Spirit of Shanghai, the OCS obtained notable results in cooperation and gained attractiveness on the international scene.
The practice has proven that the Spirit of Shanghai, characterized by mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for the diversity of civilizations and the continuation of common development, aligned itself on the common interests of the member states and demonstrated a strong vitality, he added.
Mr. Lavrov said that since China took the rotating presidency of the OCS, she hosted many events that have enabled the organization to make new progress.
Faced with a complex global context, the OCS must defend multilateralism and promote a fairer and more equitable international order, said Lavrov. He added that all parties were ready to support China’s work as president, forging a wider consensus and ensuring the success of the next OCS summit in Tianjin.
