China's Xi to Shanghai pact summit: 'Oppose pursuit of one’s own agenda'

ANKARA (AA) - China's President Xi Jinping on Friday called for "opposing the pursuit of one’s own agenda at the expense of other countries’ legitimate rights and interests."

Speaking at the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Xi said that they are committed to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter to tackle major international and regional issues on the basis of their merits.

"We are committed to the principle of equality among all countries regardless of their size, consensus-based decision-making, and addressing issues through friendly consultations," he said, adding that they reject the practice of the strong bullying the weak.

He stressed on the need to continue joint anti-terrorism exercises among the SCO nations to crack down on terrorism, separatism and extremism and other security challenges.

He said Beijing is ready to train 2,000 law enforcement personnel of SCO member states in the next five years, and establish a China-SCO base for training counter-terrorism personnel.

Talking about the situation in Afghanistan, the Chinese leader said that they should ensure that the SCO-Afghanistan contact group continues to play its role to encourage Afghan authorities to establish a broadly-based and inclusive political structure, and eliminate terrorism.

- Political trust, cooperation among SCO members state

The Chinese leader underscored the importance of friendship and peace among the SCO member states and said they all should respect each other's core interests and choice of development path.

"[We should ] support each other in achieving peace, stability, development and rejuvenation," he said.

."We accommodate each other’s interests, stay true to the principle of consultation and cooperation for shared benefits, enhance synergy between our respective development strategies, and keep to the path of win-win cooperation toward common prosperity," said the Chinese president.

He further said the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century, and it has entered a new phase of uncertainty and transformation.

"The once-in-a-century pandemic has continued unabated. Regional conflicts keep flaring up.

"The Cold War mentality and group politics are resurfacing, so are unilateralism and protectionism," he added.

To counter the challenges, he suggested that the SCO, as an important constructive force in international and regional affairs, should keep itself well-positioned in the face of changing international dynamics, ride on the trend of the times, strengthen solidarity and cooperation and build a closer SCO community with a shared future.

"We should strengthen high-level exchanges and strategic communication, deepen mutual understanding and political trust, and support each other in our efforts to uphold security and development interests.

"We should guard against attempts by external forces to instigate “color revolution,” jointly oppose interference in other countries’ internal affairs under any pretext, and hold our future firmly in our own hands," Xi said at the summit.

Xi urged for the implementation of the two resolutions for safeguarding international energy and food security adopted by the SCO and announced 1.5 billion RMB yuan ($213 million) for humanitarian assistance in grain for developing countries.

- Expand local currency

Xi stressed the need for SCO countries to trade in their local currencies in a bid to rely less on US dollars.

"[We should] work for the establishment of an SCO development bank, and thus speed up regional economic integration," he said.

"China stands ready to carry out space cooperation with all other parties and provide satellite data service to support them in agricultural development, connectivity and disaster mitigation and relief," he added.

He also suggested to enhance people-to-people and culture exchanges between the SCO member states.

"China will build a China-SCO ice and snow sports demonstration zone and host the SCO forums on poverty reduction and sustainable development and on sister cities next year. In the next three years, China will carry out 2,000 free cataract operations for SCO member states and provide 5,000 human resources training opportunities for them," he announced.

Xi congratulated India for assuming the SCO presidency for next year and assured his full support to New Delhi during its term of presidency.

The Chinese president said his country also supported the advancing SCO expansion in an active yet prudent manner, and this includes going through the procedure to admit Iran as a member state and launching the procedure for Belarus’s accession, as well as admitting Bahrain, the Maldives, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Myanmar as dialogue partners.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid