"The SCO is our shared home": Xi Jinping

BEIJING/ASTANA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- "The SCO is our shared home," Chinese President Xi Jinping once said. From time to time, the Chinese leader would describe the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)'s growing membership as a "big family."

Whether a shared home or a big family, the SCO is always open and inclusive. It features non-alliance, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party. That starkly contrasts with exclusive clubs of nations driven by ideological bloc confrontation.

In recent years, the SCO has incorporated new members who recognize the Shanghai Spirit, which is defined by mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development.

Now, with nine member states, three observer states and 14 dialogue partners, the SCO is the world's largest regional organization in terms of geographical scale and population.

For Xi, mankind, living in the same global village, are increasingly becoming a community with a shared future in which everyone's interest is closely interlinked. Thus, he proposed the building of an SCO community with a shared future at the Qingdao summit.

A lights and fireworks show takes place in Qingdao, the host city of the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, in east China's Shandong Province, June 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a witness to the establishment of "the Shanghai Five" in 1996 as a senior Kazakh official, has been involved in the SCO activities from the beginning.

He expressed "a huge respect" for Xi and support for his visions. "I have no doubts about their positive impacts on developing the world, which must be free of discrimination, of sanctions, of pressure."

Xi's proposals are playing a very crucial role in building mutual trust and benefit among countries in a world characterized by growing instability, uncertainty and unpredictability, said Sheradil Baktygulov, a foreign affairs consultant with the Kyrgyz National Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank.

"The thoughts of President Xi show the way for building a close SCO community," said Baktygulov, "and a bright future for the Eurasian continent."