Admission of India, Pakistan to SCO will inject new impetus to group, says Xi

Ufa (Russia): Welcoming SCO’s expansion, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said admission of India and Pakistan as full members will inject new impetus into the grouping’s all-ranging cooperation. India and Pakistan were on Friday accepted as full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a six-member regional grouping that currently has China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as members. [caption id=“attachment_2304990” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Chinese President Xi Jinping. AFP[/caption] Xi said the admission of India and Pakistan as new full members of the SCO will inject new impetus into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s all-ranging cooperation. Welcoming SCO’s planned enlargement, Xi called on the member states to uphold the “Shanghai Spirit” for common development, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Xi, in his speech, said the SCO should continue to expand external exchanges with other regional and international organisations and improve the dialogue and cooperation mechanism with its observers and dialogue partners. Xi called for upholding the “Shanghai Spirit” of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development, in a bid to build a community of shared destiny in the region. Over the past 15 years, the “Shanghai Spirit” has become the foundation of the SCO for its existence and growth, and the spirit represents the direction of contemporary international relations, Xi said. On regional security, the President called on SCO member states to forcefully boost cooperation in terrorism fighting, drugs control and border defense and strengthen policy coordination to maintain security and stability of member states. The SCO should enhance security cooperation with Afghanistan, help its security forces strengthen capability building and play a bigger role in the process of national reconciliation and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan, Xi said. Xi said China is willing to strengthen investment cooperation with other SCO members. The proposal to establish an SCO development bank is a strategic move to advance multilateral cooperation within the SCO and bears great significance for its future development, he said. PTI