China’s top diplomat urges SCO members to maintain strategic autonomy

BEIJING
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday called for SCO members to maintain their strategic autonomy, solidarity and cooperation and never allow external forces to turn the region into a geopolitical arena.
Wang made the remarks to the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs that was held in Astana, Kazakhstan. Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that currently as the international situation is turbulent and changing, a few countries are pursuing hegemony and power, forming small cliques, establishing hidden rules, engaging in interference and suppression, “decoupling and cutting off ties,” and even assisting the “three forces” in the region, with the aim of suppressing the strategic autonomy of the “Global South” and blocking the revitalization path of emerging markets and developing countries.
The “three forces” that Wang mentioned in his remarks refer to terrorism, separatism and religious extremism, Global Times reported.
The more chaotic the world becomes, the more we need to adhere to the “Shanghai Spirit,” grasp the correct direction, further strengthen and solidify the SCO, more effectively safeguard common interests, respond to various challenges and defend fairness and justice, said Wang.
He called for security cooperation, saying that common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security should be ongoing dynamics in the region.
The SCO countries should, taking the Global Security Initiative as a guide, work with the international community to solve security challenges, eliminate the root causes of conflicts, play a leading role in global security governance and contribute to promoting world peace, he said.
Murat Nurtleu, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcomed the heads of delegations participating in the meeting in Astana.
The meeting began with a moment of silence in remembrance of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, both died in a helicopter accident on Sunday in northern Iran.
SCO’s unique role This year’s SCO summit must deal with a weighty agenda, which includes discussions on strengthening counter-terrorism cooperation, institutional reforms and expansion of SCO membership, economic and trade cooperation, and cultural and other aspects, Cui Heng, a scholar from the Shanghai-based China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation, told the Global Times.
Cui noted that the meeting of SCO foreign ministers seeks to negotiate the result before the leaders’ summit.
One highlight of this year’s summit will be SCO expansion, Han Lu, an associate research fellow at the Department for European-Central Asian Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The organization will include more countries and its international influence will be further elevated. This suggests the strong appeal the Shanghai Spirit has, Han said.
Currently, the SCO is the largest regional multilateral organization composed of non-Western countries and it focuses on political and security cooperation. This is the uniqueness of the SCO, Cui said.
Cui noted that against the backdrop of rising anti-globalization trend and emerging challenges on especially political and non-traditional security, the current global governance framework cannot meet the needs of addressing security threats.
This means the value of the SCO is further highlighted in coping with those challenges. The SCO, in many aspects, represents a new cooperation model distinct from Western-centric organizations, which seek military expansion and make efforts to form small cliques.
The SCO, on the other hand, provides a favorable platform for strengthening South-South cooperation, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
He said the SCO reflects a new multipolar reality and has increasingly exerted influence in the region. It has played an important role in promoting international fairness, justice, and global governance reform.
Solid cooperation The SCO framework has a depth and breadth of inclusion across a wide range of fields, including diplomacy, national defense, security, economy, trade, culture, education, transportation, technology and agriculture.
The development of the SCO in recent years has helped promote cooperation between China and Russia, as well as between China and Central Asian countries, Qian said, noting that cooperation among these countries within the SCO’s multilateral framework continues to expand and deepen.