Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Kazan: ‘China and Russia are ready to turn the SCO into a happy home for peoples’

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit will be held in Tianjin (China) from 31 August to 1 September. The date was announced on 16 July at a press conference held following the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO member states, which was also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In a column for Realnoe Vremya, Consul General of China in Kazan Xiang Bo talks about how China is preparing for the summit and what hopes it has for it.
Bringing SCO construction to a new stage of high-quality development
A meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states was held in Tianjin. It was attended by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other foreign ministers of the participating countries. The meeting became a comprehensive preparation for the upcoming summit of the heads of state of the SCO member states in Tianjin this fall. As a representative country, China, together with other member states, will make efforts to hold a friendly, united and fruitful summit.
In the 24 years since the founding of the SCO, the organization has grown from six member states to a “large family” of the SCO, including 26 countries: member states, observer countries and dialogue partners. Today, it is the largest regional international organization in the world in terms of territory and population.

Thanks to the joint efforts of its member countries, the SCO has travelled a fruitful path of peaceful development, becoming a security shield, a bridge of cooperation, bonds of friendship and a constructive force in the region. The organization is also an important platform for developing comprehensive strategic cooperation, promoting multilateralism, strengthening practical interaction, and strengthening the solidarity of the Global South.
The success of the SCO stems from the powerful attraction of the Shanghai Spirit
The principles of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consensus, respect for the diversity of civilizations and the desire for joint development embedded in it overcome such outdated concepts as the clash of civilizations, Cold War thinking and zero-sum games. These principles have united the member states around a common commitment to peaceful development and mutually beneficial cooperation, found a deep resonance in the development vision of the countries of the Global South, become a fundamental guideline for the continuous growth and strengthening of the SCO, and served as a banner for promoting the construction of a new type of international relations.
In recent years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been applying a number of “Chinese solutions”, continuously enriching and improving the Shanghai Spirit, filling it with content relevant to our time. At the Qingdao Summit in 2018, President Xi Jinping put forward the initiative to “build a community with a shared future for the SCO”, for the first time combining the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind with the SCO. “Forming a common vision for the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind” was recorded in the Qingdao Declaration, becoming an important political consensus and goal of the SCO.

At the summit in Astana in 2024, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that member states should firmly root a sense of common destiny, strive to build “five common homes”, namely: a common home of cohesion and mutual trust, a common home of peace and tranquillity, a common home of prosperity and development, a common home of good-neighbourliness and friendship, a common home of equality and justice, which is developing the SCO development project.
Success is also due to the high capacity of the “SCO force” for practical action
The SCO has laid the foundation for a fundamentally new model of cooperation, in which countries with different social systems and development paths join forces, act in the spirit of openness, mutual benefit, mutual respect and exchange of experience, comprehensively and deeply promote cooperation in six key areas: politics, security, economics, humanitarian ties, foreign relations and institution building. This has led to a continuously improving security environment, a steadily increasing influence on world trade, and deeper mutual understanding among people.
According to the 20th Anniversary Trade Development Report of the SCO, the total trade volume among SCO member states has increased nearly 100 times in 20 years. In 2024, China's trade volume with SCO member states, observer states, and dialogue partners reached US$890 billion, reaching a historical high, fully demonstrating the enormous vitality and broad prospects for the development of regional trade.

The Chinese side declared 2025 the Year of Sustainable Development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Within the framework of the Global Development Initiative (GDI), a series of cooperation activities will be launched in eight priority areas, including poverty reduction, food security, public health, development finance, climate action, green development, industrialization, digital economy, and infrastructure connectivity, which is aimed at accelerating the alignment of high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative with regional cooperation initiatives and national development strategies of the SCO member states.
Russia Contributes Wisdom and Strength to the Development of the SCO
The Tianjin Summit will adopt a Summit Declaration to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the UN, to express the unified position of the member states on key international and regional issues, as well as formulate a development strategy for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization at the next stage, taking into account the common consensus and will for practical cooperation.
The success of the SCO is also due to the powerful driving force of the joint contributions of the SCO member states. Under the strategic leadership of the heads of state, the SCO continues to develop and grow, demonstrating high vitality. In particular, China and Russia, as the founding countries of the SCO, maintain close cooperation in improving the construction of the organizational structure, deepening the content of cooperation, expanding the areas of interaction, jointly ensuring the sustainable and long-term development of the SCO.
The Russian side has already hosted the SCO Heads of State Summit five times, and this year it will hold a meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the SCO Member States, constantly contributing its wisdom and strength to the development and growth of the Organization.

China always regards the SCO as a priority area of efforts in its diplomacy with neighbouring states. This year is the Year of China of the SCO, as the presiding side, China put forward the slogan “Promoting the Shanghai Spirit: SCO in Action”, which clearly demonstrates the common desire of the countries to “implement concrete measures” and practical work. China interprets “action” as a key concept in the work of the SCO chairmanship and intends to hold more than 100 meetings and events to further deepen practical cooperation in various fields, taking real actions. Practical actions were also envisaged to strengthen political mutual trust, maintain common security, promote common prosperity, strengthen non-governmental exchanges and improve the effectiveness of mechanisms.
In the context of a volatile and unstable world, China is ready to work with Russia and other member states to comprehensively prepare for the Tianjin Summit, strengthen the Shanghai Spirit, unite the SCO strength, focus on cooperation and practical actions to build a closer SCO community with a shared future, so as to turn the SCO into a force stabilizing the international order, a reliable source of prosperity and revival for member states and a happy home for the peoples of the region.
Подписывайтесь на телеграм-канал, группу «ВКонтакте» и страницу в «Одноклассниках» «Реального времени». Ежедневные видео на Rutube и «Дзене».