(November 10, 2020, Beijing)
Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China
Dear President Putin
Dear colleagues:
Thanks to President Putin and Russia as the rotating presidency for their meticulous preparations for this meeting. The Russian side earnestly fulfilled its responsibilities as the chairmanship, overcome the impact of Coronavirus pandemic, and promoted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to maintain a good momentum of development. China speaks highly of this.
Since its establishment, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has gone through an extraordinary course of development and time-tested, and has become an important constructive force in Eurasian and international affairs. Following the “Shanghai Spirit”, the member states have strengthened cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, security, and humanities, and established a model of a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation. After the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic, all parties worked together and helped each other, injecting positive energy into the stable development of the organization and international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic.
Dear colleagues!
The Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the adjustment of the international pattern, and the world has entered a period of turbulent change. The international community is undergoing major tests of multilateral and unilateral, openness and closure, cooperation and confrontation. “What’s wrong with the world, what shall we do” has become the question of the times.
“The one who observes the situation knows, and the one who trends is wise.” Human beings live in the same global village, and the interests of all countries are closely linked and their destinies are closely linked. People of all countries have a stronger yearning for a better life, and the trend of the times of peace, development, cooperation and win-win is irresistible. History has and will continue to prove that good-neighborly friendship will surpass beggar-thy-neighbors, mutually beneficial cooperation will replace zero-sum games, and multilateralism will surely defeat unilateralism.
Under the current circumstances, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization must promote the “Shanghai Spirit”, deepen unity and cooperation, make greater contributions to the stability and development of regional countries, and make more practical explorations to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
First, strengthen anti-pandemic cooperation and build a health community. Coronavirus pandemic continues to spread. The virus knows no borders, solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapons to fight the pandemic, and saving lives is the top priority.
We must strengthen the joint prevention and control of all countries, support each other’s efforts to fight the pandemic, and maintain regional and global public health security. We must support the World Health Organization to play a key leadership role, oppose the politicization and labelling of the pandemic, and jointly resist the “political virus.” It is necessary to make good use of the organization’s cooperation mechanism in the health field to deepen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as pandemic surveillance, scientific research, and disease prevention. China proposes that the CDCs of member countries set up hotlines to report information on cross-border infectious diseases in a timely manner. Traditional medicine has shown its unique value and important role in fighting the pandemic. We must continue to organize the traditional medicine forum of this organization and deepen exchanges and mutual learning. Vaccines are essential for humans to overcome the pandemic. China has joined the “Global Coronavirus Vaccine Implementation Plan”, and is willing to actively consider the organization’s national vaccine needs and support countries to protect people’s lives and health.
Second, maintain security and stability and build a security community. Security and stability are the primary prerequisites for national development and are related to the core interests of all countries. We must follow a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security concept, effectively respond to various threats and challenges, and create a good regional security environment.
We must firmly support relevant countries to smoothly advance major domestic political agendas in accordance with the law, firmly support countries in maintaining political security and social stability, and resolutely oppose external forces interfering in the internal affairs of member states under any pretext. We must deepen unity and mutual trust, persist in resolving contradictions and differences through dialogue and consultation, and consolidate the political foundation for the development of the organization. It is necessary to strictly prevent the “three forces” from taking advantage of the pandemic to create chaos, curb the spread of drugs, combat the spread of extremist ideas through the Internet, and improve the level of law enforcement and security cooperation among member states. We must attach importance to maintaining bio-security, data security, and outer space security, and actively engage in communication and dialogue. China launched the “Global Data Security Initiative” to jointly build a peaceful, safe, open, cooperative, and orderly cyberspace. All parties are welcome to participate. The situation in Afghanistan is related to regional security and stability. We must make good use of the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization-Afghanistan Liaison Group” platform to help Afghanistan achieve peaceful reconstruction.
Third, deepen pragmatic cooperation and build a development community. Everyone develops together is real development, and sustainable development is good development. We must uphold the development concept of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing, expand practical cooperation space, and help economic recovery and improvement of people’s livelihood.
We must continue to promote the in-depth integration of the “Belt and Road” initiative with the development strategies of various countries and regional cooperation initiatives such as the Eurasian Economic Union, strengthen interconnection, promote the deep integration of industrial chains, supply chains, and value chains, and smooth regional economic cycles. It is necessary to accelerate the resumption of work and production through the “fast channel” for personnel exchanges and the “green channel” for cargo transportation. It is necessary to create an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for enterprises from all countries and expand the scale of mutual investment. It is necessary to seize the opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and strengthen cooperation in the fields of digital economy, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and smart cities. The Chinese side will hold the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Digital Economy Industry Forum in Chongqing next year to build a platform for all parties to carry out innovative cooperation. We must persist in putting people first and jointly implement more projects for people’s livelihood. China supports the establishment of the organization’s joint poverty reduction working group and is willing to share successful experiences in poverty reduction with all parties.
Fourth, promote people-to-people bonds and build a humanistic community. There is no difference in civilization, there is only difference in characteristics. We must promote mutual learning and mutual learning among civilizations, promote good-neighborly friendship among countries, and consolidate the public opinion foundation for the long-term development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
We must actively use various media to widely publicize the development achievements of the organization, so that the organization’s concept of cooperation will become more popular. It is necessary to support the organization’s exchanges and cooperation in education, culture, tourism, sports, media, women and other fields, and form an all-round, in-depth, multi-channel cooperation structure. China will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Non-governmental Friendship Forum next year, continue to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Youth Exchange Camp, and provide 600 youth exchange places for all parties in the next three years to cultivate young generations who know each other.
We must coordinate the promotion of normalized pandemic prevention and control and cooperation in various fields of the organization, innovate working methods, adopt flexible methods for cooperation, and maintain the effective operation of relevant mechanisms. The secretariat and regional counter-terrorism agencies should play a good coordination role, and member states should also increase their efforts to support the work of permanent agencies.
Dear colleagues!
75 years ago, our ancestors won the victory of the world anti-fascist war, established the United Nations, and wrote a new chapter in human history. We must learn from history, practice multilateralism, improve global governance, and maintain international order with practical actions. We must uphold the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and advocate that global affairs should be negotiated by all countries, the governance system should be built by everyone, and the results of development should be shared by the people of all countries.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization should expand its network of partnerships, conduct extensive cooperation with observer countries, dialogue partners, and international organizations such as the United Nations, play a more active role in international and regional affairs, and strive to build lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness. Clean the beautiful world.
Dear colleagues!
China cannot develop without the world, and the prosperity of the world also needs China. China is accelerating the formation of a new development pattern with domestic and international cycles as the mainstay and mutual promotion of domestic and international cycles, and building a new higher-level open economic system. China will unswervingly pursue a mutually beneficial and win-win opening strategy, draw development momentum from the world, and let China’s development better benefit the world. All parties are welcome to seize new opportunities for China’s development and actively deepen cooperation with China.
China congratulates President Rahmon on taking over the chairmanship of the Heads of State Council and will actively support the work of the Tajik presidency. Next year the organization will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Let us hold high the banner of “Shanghai Spirit”, cooperate sincerely, and forge ahead, promote the greater development of this organization, and build a closer community of destiny!
thank you all.
