Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi addresses reporters after attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers in the capital of Uzbekistan on May 24, 2016. (Photo: Xinhua/Sadat)
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has become a paradigm of global and regional cooperation with great vitality and significant influence since its founding 15 years ago, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday.
The SCO has set an example of good neighborly and friendly relations, with its member states firmly supporting each other's development paths and efforts to safeguard respective core interests while resolving differences through dialogue and consultation, Wang told reporters after attending a meeting of SCO foreign ministers in the capital of Uzbekistan.
The SCO serves as a model of efficient cooperation by paying equal attention simultaneously to economic development and security cooperation, which has helped safeguard regional peace and stability, he said.
With adherence to the principle of non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting at any third party, Wang said, the SCO is also a paradigm of opening up and win-win cooperation featuring transparency and inclusiveness.
The SCO will continue to take as a guide the "Shanghai Spirit" of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development to its further development, said the top Chinese diplomat.
Speaking of the SCO foreign ministers meeting, Wang said the gathering has made full preparation for the SCO Tashkent Summit marking its 15th anniversary, and that he believed the summit to be held in June will have an important and positive impact on the bloc's future development.
The meeting adopted the memorandum of obligations for India and Pakistan to join the organization, which will be reviewed by the Tashkent summit for approval, said Wang.
Founded in 2001, the SCO now has China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as its full members, with Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan as observers, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey as dialogue partners.
