Growing SCO is much needed for global peace and prosperity

                                                                                                                     China Daily

With Iran officially joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Tuesday, the organization is bringing positive energy to peace and stability in Eurasia and the world.

Since its founding in 2001, under the guidance of the Shanghai Spirit, the SCO has brought together countries from different regions and successfully charted a new path for development featuring partnership rather than alliance, dialogue rather than confrontation.

Due to profound changes in the international situation, political changes in some SCO member states, and "color revolutions "instilled by non-regional forces, the Eurasian region still faces threats from intertwined traditional and non-traditional security factors. The instability and uncertainty of the world economy have also increased the difficulties for the development and revitalization of SCO member states. Against this backdrop, under the framework of the SCO, China has put forward a series of proposals, including enhancing unity and mutual trust, maintaining regional peace and common security, focusing on pragmatic cooperation to speed up economic recovery, strengthening mutual learning and people-to-people exchanges, and practicing multilateralism to improve global governance.

The SCO summit New Delhi hosts this week also produced a memorandum on Belarus' obligation to join the SCO. The SCO's expanded "circle of friends" will strongly promote the development of global governance in a more just and equitable direction.

China first put forward the Belt and Road Initiative among SCO members 10 years ago, and over the past decade, a number of landmark connectivity projects have been launched. In the New Delhi Declaration, the vast majority of SCO member states reaffirmed their support for the BRI.

At present, the international situation is undergoing profound changes and some Western countries are going all out to provoke camp confrontation to maintain their hegemony. In contrast, the equality, solidarity, cooperation and inclusiveness advocated by the SCO are urgently needed in this era. A prospering SCO will inject more impetus to peace and prosperity.