SCO meeting to promote new approach to cooperation

Premier Li Keqiang is visiting Uzbekistan to attend the 18th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent from Friday to Saturday. Aimed at enhancing and extending multilateral cooperation to promote regional development and stability, the meeting will also focus on promoting multilateral trade in the long term.

The SCO has made strenuous efforts to counter the rising wave of protectionism, and boost the global economy. And the SCO economic ministers' meeting on Sept 26 vowed to deepen cooperation in fields such as information, communication, scientific and technological innovation, and environmental protection.

The Sept 26 meeting also drafted a document on multilateral trade and economic cooperation among the SCO member states for the period up to 2035, which will be discussed at the Tashkent SCO meeting. The meeting will also discuss the draft of SCO cooperation and how the development can improve people's living standards in remote and rural areas.

China is committed to promoting economic cooperation among the SCO states, and has transformed some of the proposals into action, including the China-SCO local economic cooperation demonstration zone in Qingdao, Shandong province, the 2019 SCO Heads of Region Meeting in Chongqing, and the 26th China (Yangling) Agricultural Hi-Tech Fair in Shaanxi province. In fact, China has vowed to continuously help the SCO use new approaches to boost regional cooperation.

Security has long been an important item on the SCO agenda. And the Tashkent meeting will accord priority to the stability of Central Asia, because rising terrorism, extremism and separatism have caused turbulence in SCO states in Central Asia such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

The geopolitical game being played by major powers, the information war among them and the political chaos in the Middle East have created more challenges for the SCO in its endeavor to deepen cooperation and maintain peace in the region.

Therefore, the SCO states should work more closely to eliminate the security risks, ensure cybersecurity, combat organized crime, strengthen joint enforcement of programs and improve the security mechanisms.

Stability in Central Asia is critical to economic cooperation among SCO members. As such, the heads of government of SCO countries will try to find ways to not only combat extremism but also defuse social tensions, generate more jobs and improve infrastructure.

China has proposed to establish a new type of major country relationship, improve international relations and build a community with a shared future for mankind, which has been lauded by the international community as an innovative way to create new opportunities for international cooperation.

Besides, most of the SCO member and observer states that attended the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in April agreed to strengthen cooperation through the Belt and Road Initiative, transforming the initiative into a platform through which they can coordinate and connect their development programs.

The document on cooperation, too, will be discussed at the Tashkent SCO meeting. Uzbekistan, for example, has shown interest in the "economic corridor" proposal, a project which would enable China to deepen cooperation with Central Asian countries. The Tashkent meeting is also expected to help the SCO member states to reach more agreements on regional cooperation through the Belt and Road mechanism.

Moreover, to offset the harms caused by the United States' unilateral and protectionist policies to the world economy, the SCO has vowed to follow the principle of open and inclusive cooperation, promote multilateralism, deepen cooperation in global governance, and protect free trade with the aim of meeting the needs of developing as well as developed countries. And by adapting to the changing times and adopting appropriate programs, the SCO will make more contributions to global growth and international relation.

The author is executive director of the China Center for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies. The views don't necessarily represent that of China Daily.