- SCO Summit 2024: Xi and Putin Alignment Advances Multilateralism in Eurasia
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi skips Astana Summit
- China is due to take up the rotating presidency of the SCO for 2025
- Belarus officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
- Admitting Belarus as an official member further consolidates global standing, appeal and attractiveness of SCO
- Astana Declaration calls for building a community with a shared future for mankind
- Qingdao City declared as SCO tourist and cultural capital for 2024 and 2025
- SCO members agree to promote multilateral trading system
- Upholding the Shanghai Spirit, a foundation to accomplish the Eurasian dream of common prosperity, and development
- Leaders of the ten SCO countries sign cooperation agreements during the Astana Summit.
By: Muhammad Arif, Editor NSN.Asia
Islamabad: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have reiterated their commitment to advance their vision for common development of Eurasian countries through win-win cooperation under the Shanghai Spirit at Astana Summit 2024 that concluded in capital of Kazakhstan, on July 3, 2024, where heads and envoys of 10 member states gathered to discuss matters pertaining to mutual security, stability, peace, and common economic development.
The annual summit of SCO in Astana showed that Beijing and Moscow have aligned their mutual interests for common security, peace and development amid the regional geopolitical tensions as Western institutions bombard them by various trade and economic sanctions.
China and Russia are the main drivers behind the SCO’s expansion, and both are seeking more engagement with Central Asian, Eurasian and South Asian partners based on the principle of ‘Good Neighbourliness’ , peaceful coexisting and mutual benefit for all.
Both the founding states, China and Russia, aspire to present the SCO as a platform for dialogue and cooperation that has become a dynamic organization that other regional countries like Turkiye have forwarded requests for admission or membership.
The charismatic alignment of Xi and Putin has always stressed the need to jointly promote SCO as a sphere for dialogue and communication, a pathway for scientific and technological innovation, a force for maintaining the regional peace and stability, and as an icon of Eurasian integration and connectivity.
While attending the expanded meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization SCO+, Chinese President Xi Jinping said “China is ready to work with all parties to implement the eight major steps under high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and promote regional cooperation through platforms, such as the demonstration base for agricultural technology exchange and training, the local economic and trade cooperation demonstration area, and the ecology and environment innovation base”.
Xi called for earnest efforts to establish an SCO financing platform and welcomed all parties to use the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and participate in constructing the international lunar scientific research station.
China is ready to provide no less than 1,000 training opportunities for digital technology in the next three years, he said.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization is bedrock of multipolar world, said Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday at the SCO summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.
“The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is expanding to become a power center in a world that is evolving towards multipolarity”, Putin noted.
Putin also promised to support China’s chairmanship of the SCO in 2024–2025 in “every way,” calling the organization “one of the key pillars of a fair multipolar world order.”
“We have repeatedly stated with good reason that Russia-China relations, our comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation, are going through the best period in their history,” the Russian leader said. They are “guided by the principles of equality, mutual benefit and respect for each other’s sovereignty,” Putin stressed in his statement.
Our cooperation is not directed against anyone. We do not create any blocs or alliances; we are simply acting in the interests of our people”, he added.
Belarus officially joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Thursday during the Astana Summit, and became its 10th member state of SCO’s ‘big family’, adding a new chapter of cooperation among Eurasian states.
After the summit in Astana, China is due to take up the rotating presidency of the SCO for a year.
SCO was founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to combat terrorism and promote border security, the SCO has grown in recent years in line with Beijing and Moscow’s shared vision to build a community of shared future; peace for all and development for all.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipped the event this time.
“The SCO has become one of the most authoritative international organizations, and given the uniqueness and enormous potential of the SCO, interest from other countries in joining the organization is steadily growing”, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during the summit.
- Astana Declaration calls for building a community with a shared future for mankind
The Astana summit concluded in Kazakhstan, and members of SCO adopted the Astana Declaration who reaffirmed their commitment to building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.
- Astana Declaration called on SCO members to oppose a confrontational mindset in resolving international and regional issues.
- Qingdao City declared as SCO tourist and cultural capital for 2024 and 2025
Qingdao City, located in Shandong Province of China, has been declared as will be the SCO tourist and cultural capital for 2024 and 2025, the Astana Declaration stated.
- SCO members agree to promote multilateral trading system
The SCO members agreed to promote multilateral trading system for the building of an open world economy.
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), covering more than 60 percent of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the world’s population, would provide a strategic opportunity for regional land and sea transport corridors to play a vital role for Eurasian connectivity, cooperation and development.
- Astana Summit 2024 consolidates global standing, appeal and attractiveness of SCO
Admitting Belarus as an official member further consolidates global standing, appeal and attractiveness of SCO as regional hub of cooperation.
The SCO was founded in 2001 with six original members, it expanded by including India and Pakistan in 2017 and Iran in 2023. In 2024 at Astana Summit, it added Belarus as its current 10 members that leads the SCO to be the world’s largest regional organization in terms of territorial expanse and population, covering over 40 percent of the world population.
As of 2023, its combined GDP accounted for over a quarter of the global GDP, while the establishment of a legal framework as well as various cooperation mechanisms has boosted economic integration between the member states.
SCO’s expansion shows widening spectrum of cooperation and connectivity across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, reflecting significant benefits for the member states in their efforts to develop transportation infrastructure and promote regional connectivity for the prosperity.
- The leaders of SCO countries sign cooperation agreements during the Astana Summit.
The leaders of the ten countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and Belarus also signed dozens of cooperation agreements during the Astana Summit.
Astana declaration shows various cooperation initiatives and joint efforts for development of innovative payment systems, e-commerce infrastructure, digital economy, countering economic monopolization, sustained development, environmental protection, green energy development, atomic energy, tourism, healthcare, waste management etc.
- Upholding the Shanghai Spirit of mutual cooperation, mutual trust and good neighborliness
If 10 member states of SCO continue to uphold the Shanghai Spirit of mutual cooperation, mutual trust and good neighborliness, I am sure they could accomplish the Eurasian dream of common prosperity, and development.
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