China welcomes more countries that recognize Shanghai Spirit to join SCO family: spokesperson

(ECNS) -- China welcomes more countries that recognize the Shanghai Spirit and the purposes and principles of the SCO to join the SCO family, work together to build an even closer SCO community with a shared future, jointly uphold international fairness and justice, promote world peace and stability, and make SCO’s contribution to global prosperity and development, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

During this year’s summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of other SCO member states jointly signed a resolution to grant Belarus the status of an SCO member state, making the country the 10th SCO member state.

As an observer of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for a long time, Belarus highly recognizes the Shanghai Spirit and other core visions of the organization, actively participated in SCO cooperation in various fields, and made important contributions to the development of the SCO, said the spokesperson Mao Ning.

China once again extends warm congratulations to Belarus and looks forward to Belarus’ active, comprehensive and in-depth participation in SCO activities and its new contribution to the organization’s development, Mao said.

The SCO today stands as a comprehensive regional organization that covers the largest population and area in the world, Mao added.

She noted that as more countries became SCO member states, it shows that the Shanghai Spirit has strong vitality, cohesiveness and appeal, and that the SCO follows the development trend of the times, practices an open and inclusive cooperation vision and is welcomed and commended by the international community and countries in the region.

More and more countries now hope to strengthen cooperation with the SCO, and obtain or upgrade their legal status in the SCO, she added.