China supports the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to
hold dialogue and carry out exchanges and cooperation with other
countries and international organizations, Chinese President Hu
Jintao said on Thursday.
Addressing the ongoing SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital of
Bishkek, Hu said opening-up and deepening cooperation with other
countries and international organizations will help SCO build a
sound external environment conducive to its development.
"We will stick to peaceful cooperation as well as
multilateralism when concerns from other parts of the world towards
SCO, especially towards Central Asia, are increasing," Hu said.
"We will support all activities that benefit regional peace,
stability and economic progress and will help preserve the
solidarity and security of its member countries," he stressed.
The president went on to say that China supports SCO to start at
an early date substantial cooperation with its observer countries,
which include Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Iran, and encourages
the group to carry out extensive cooperation with all countries and
international organizations which agree to SCO's doctrines and
principles so as to safeguard world peace and push for a fairer and
more reasonable international order.
President Hu also called on SCO members to expand cultural and
educational cooperation and facilitate youth exchanges.
Hu proposed that SCO members learn from one another and promote
equal exchanges between different cultures so as to consolidate the
social basis for the generations-long friendship between SCO
members.
The Chinese president said half of the world's population, which
covers more than 300 ethnic groups, lives in SCO member and
observer countries and has created splendid and age-old cultures in
history.
"We should learn from one another's advanced aspects to overcome
our shortcomings and make common progress," he said.
SCO member countries should engage in all-around exchanges and
cooperation in such fields as science, culture, education, sports
and healthcare, and make special efforts to create conditions for
the exchanges between their youths, Hu said.
Apart from other scholarship programs set up under bilateral
agreements, China will establish a separate scholarship project to
sponsor 20 students from its five fellow SCO members -- Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to study in China
every year.
The Chinese president also suggested that SCO members take turns
hosting exchange workshops for young students. To implement the
initiative, China will invite more than 50 undergraduates and
middle school students to come to south China's tropic resort
Hainan Island next year to spend their winter holidays, Hu
said.
He hoped SCO members would actively promote the teaching of one
another's language and cultures, and said China will provide more
teachers and text books for the teaching of Chinese in other SCO
members and hoped that Chinese teachers and students will get due
support for the teaching and learning of Russian, Kazakh, Kirghiz,
Tajiki and Uzbek.
As China is going to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in its
capital city Beijing, Hu welcomed SCO members to take part in
Olympics-related cultural events and vowed to provide convenience
for them to show their cultures during the Olympic Games.
President Hu promised to the member states of the SCO that China
will promote regional economic cooperation for greater mutual
benefit and all-win results.
Only by adhering to common development can the economic
foundation of the SCO be consolidated, Hu said.
Hu urged all member states to take advantage of geographical
vicinity and economic compatibility to tap their own potentials and
achieve common development.
He also suggested that the SCO improve the legal framework of
all member states for further cooperation, speed up the
promulgation of regulations on road transport facilitation and
multilateral treaties to encourage and protect mutual investments,
implement the guidelines on multilateral economic cooperation, and
carry out exemplary projects in energy, transport and telecom, as
well as other areas.
Against the backdrop of globalization, all member states should
enhance the international cooperation within the framework of SCO,
expand external economic and technological exchanges and strengthen
cooperation with the concerned international financial
organizations to compete on the international market and benefit
from such a drive, Hu said.
China is willing to take concrete measures to push forward the
SCO's regional cooperation and promptly implement projects
featuring multi-participation and mutual benefits, he said.
Areas such as transportation, telecommunication and energy are
given priority on the agenda for SCO cooperation. Hu vowed to
continue to provide necessary credit and financial support to the
multilateral and bilateral projects in these areas.
New treaty lauded
The Treaty on Long-term Good-neighborliness, Friendship and
Cooperation which is to be signed by the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO) will be an important milestone in the
development process of the organization, President Hu said.
The treaty "confirms to the long-cherished wish of peoples from
all SCO member states to ensure friendship for generations to come
and guarantee peace forever," Hu said, adding that it "will give a
vigorous impetus to the development of the SCO."
After six years of development, "the SCO has become an effective
mechanism for member states to maintain common interests and
promote mutually beneficial cooperation," Hu said. He added that
the organization has become an important force to maintain
long-lasting peace and promote common development.
During the past year after the Shanghai summit, the cooperation
among member states has registered further progress with enhanced
political trust, deepened security cooperation, closer economic
cooperation, and increased international influence.
"All these results have consolidated the foundation for the
long-term and steady development of the SCO," Hu said.
Hu pointed out that there were still certain unharmonious and
unstable elements in the world. "Unilateralism and power politics
still exist, traditional and non-traditional threat is still
severe, and economic globalization failed to bring benefits to the
majority of developing countries," he said.
Even in the region of SCO members, certain interference can
still be seen, such as terrorism, extremism, separatism, drug
trafficking and rampant trans-national crime. "All these are
detrimental to the common development of the SCO and harmony in the
region," Hu said.
To ensure the development of the organization, Hu urged all
sides to adhere to good-neighborliness and friendship and to
earnestly implement the treaty in an effort to consolidate the
political basis for the SCO.
"The most serious challenge we face is that whether all member
states can effectively maintain their sovereignty, security and
development," said Hu, stressing that such a matter is of "vital
importance."
He urged all SCO members to coordinate with and support one
another in line with the spirit of the treaty. "No matter what
happened, we should proceed from regional peace and stability, the
SCO's long-term development and good-neighborliness and friendship
among member states and properly deal with and resolve problems in
accordance with the principles set forth in the SCO's legal
documents," he said.
Leaders from Afghanistan and Turkemanistan also attended the
summit as special guests of the host nation, as well as
representatives of international and regional organizations,
including the United Nations.
The summit was the seventh meeting among SCO top leaders since
it was founded in June 2001.
In each year's roundtable summit, leaders of the SCO, which now
groups China, Russia, and central Asia's Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, review the work in the past year and
blueprint plans on political, economic, security and
people-to-people cooperation.
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2007)
