What to expect from SCO summit in Qingdao

BEIJING - President Xi Jinping will chair the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, which is scheduled for June 9 to 10 in Qingdao, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province.

It will be the first SCO summit since its expansion when India and Pakistan were accepted as full members at the Astana summit in Kazakhstan in 2017.

The SCO has undergone an extraordinary development process and become a comprehensive regional organization with vast influence since its inception 17 years ago.

Member states have promoted cooperation in various areas and played constructive roles in regional and international issues, and therefore set an example of a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation.

-- Who will attend the summit?

Leaders of the eight SCO member states and the four observer states, as well as heads of international organizations will attend the summit to exchange their views on cooperation.

The SCO's full members are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. Its observer states are Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia.

-- What is on agenda?

Xi will chair the summit and invite the guests to a welcome banquet and a fireworks display.

Participants will sum up the development experience of the SCO, advocate the "Shanghai Spirit," and discuss measures to fight the "three evil forces" of terrorism, extremism and separatism, drug trafficking, and cybercrime.

The summit will also focus on issues like improving global governance and consolidating the multilateral trade system, and lay out new plans to enhance the synergy of development strategies of member states, especially promoting the construction of the Belt and Road to lift regional economic cooperation.

On the sidelines of the summit, the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan will pay state visits to China, and the Iranian president will pay a working visit to China.

Xi will also hold bilateral meetings with other leaders during the event.

-- Consensus to be reached

The summit will issue the Qingdao Declaration to summarize the development experience of the SCO and promote the "Shanghai Spirit" of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations, and pursuit of common development.

It will ratify a five-year outline for the implementation of the Treaty on Long-term Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, and approve more than 10 cooperation deals covering areas including security, economy, and people-to-people exchanges.

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