(Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)
Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Monday members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (OCS) to move forward with concrete measures for a better future, while the organization holds its largest summit ever organized in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.
Addressing the 25th meeting of the Council of OCS Heads of State, Xi called on member states to promote the spirit of Shanghai in a world in the grip of challenges and changes, and to better exploit the potential of the organization.
Pioneer realizations
Founded in Shanghai in June 2001, the OCS went from six founding members to the largest regional organization in the world, with cooperation covering more than 50 areas and combined economic production of nearly $ 30,000 billion.
“Its international influence and its unifying strength are strengthened day by day,” said Xi, welcoming “pioneering achievements and Historical Echoes” of the OCS in terms of development and cooperation.
The organization was the first to set up a military trust mechanism in border areas and launch “belt and road” cooperation. “We were the first to conclude a treaty of good neighborhood, friendship and long-term cooperation, sealing our commitment to perpetuate our friendship from generation to generation and never become enemies of each other,” he said.
The member states were also the first to offer the conception of global governance known as “consultation, synergy and sharing”, in order to put into practice a real multilateralism.
“We have to recommend an equal and ordered multipolar world and beneficial economic globalization for all and inclusive and promote the construction of a fairer and more equitable global governance system,” he added.
More pragmatic actions
Mr. XI called the OCS member states to remain faithful to the founding mission of the organization and to promote its healthy and sustainable development with greater determination and more concrete measures.
According to Mr. XI, the member states of the OCS must look for common ground while putting aside their disputes, pursue mutually advantageous and win-win objectives, defend openness and inclusiveness, respect equity and justice, and strive to obtain concrete results and great efficiency.
“OCS member states are all friends and partners,” he said, calling them to respect their differences, maintain strategic communication, build a collective consensus and strengthen their solidarity and coordination.
XI said that member states should take advantage of the assets of their gigantic markets and their economic complementarity, and improve trade and investment facilitation.
He expressed his hope of seeing reinforced cooperation in fields such as energy, infrastructure, green industry, digital economy, scientific and technological innovation and artificial intelligence, as well as the creation of an OCS development bank as soon as possible.
In order to ensure better development of the OCS by concrete actions, Mr. XI announced that China would grant aid of two billion yuan (around 281 million dollars) to other OCS member states this year and to grant an additional ten billion yuan loan to member banks of the OCS interbank consortium in the next three years.
In addition, China plans to implement 100 small social well-being projects “small and beautiful” in member countries that need it. Over the next five years, China will create ten Luban workshops in these countries and will provide 10,000 training places.
The stock of Chinese investments in the other OCS member states exceeded $ 84 billion, and the volume of annual trade between China with the other OCS member states is totally $ 500 billion.
“China always seeks to associate its development with that of the OCS and the aspiration of the peoples of member countries with a better life,” Xi said.
A fruitful meeting
The meeting on Monday was marked by the signing and adoption of a certain number of key documents, including the Tianjin Declaration and a development strategy for the organization for the period 2026-2035, which draws the main lines of the OCS action for the next decade.
The leaders of the OCS member states agreed to accept Laos as a dialogue partner of the organization and decided that Kirghizistan would assume the rotating presidency of the OCS for the period 2025-2026.
The results of the meeting also include a declaration on support for the multilateral trade system, a declaration on the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Second World War and the Foundation of the United Nations, as well as 24 final documents on the strengthening of cooperation in fields such as security, the economy and relations between peoples, as well as organizational strengthening.
Four new OCS centers have been inaugurated in order to combat security threats and challenges, tackle organized transnational crime, improve information security and strengthen cooperation in the fight against drugs, respectively.
The leaders of the OCS member states, as well as the secretary general of the OCS, Nourlan Yermekbaïev, and the director of the Executive Committee of the anti-terrorist regional structure of the OCS, Ularbek Sharsheev, delivered speeches during the meeting.
Faced with a world in the grip of turbulence, OCS member states must strengthen their strategic coordination, reject unilateralism, hegemony and protectionism, improve the system of global governance and defend international equity and justice, they said.
