Qin Gang Attends the SCO Foreign Ministers' Meeting

On May 5, 2023 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Goa, India.

Qin Gang said that the world today is faced with multiple crises and challenges, including the resurgence of the Cold War, surging countercurrents of unilateralism and protectionism, and the emergence of power politics. The SCO is an important constructive force in international and regional affairs, and the more complex the international situation is, the more necessary it is to firmly carry forward the Shanghai Spirit and build a closer SCO community with a shared future.

Qin Gang made a five-point proposal. First, adhere to strategic autonomy and strengthen solidarity and mutual trust. All parties should firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests, and oppose the attempts of external forces to interfere in regional affairs and plot "color revolutions". Second, deepen security cooperation and safeguard regional peace. All parties should continue to crack down hard on the three forces of terrorism, extremism and separatism, including the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), drug trafficking, and multinational organized crime, support Afghanistan in building a broad-based and inclusive political structure, and sternly combat all forms of terrorism. Third, advocate openness and inclusiveness, and promote interconnected development. All parties should firmly reject any act that undermines international economic and trade order and market rules, and defend the stable and smooth industrial and supply chains. China will take its hosting of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation this year as an important opportunity to work with all other parties to ensure that the road to opportunity and prosperity will enjoy broader prospects in a new decade. Fourth, pursue fairness and justice, and improve global governance. China is ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with all other parties to jointly support the SCO in implementing such major initiatives as the building of a human community with a shared future, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, and join hands to promote the development of international order in a fairer and more reasonable manner. Fifth, enhance mechanism building with a long-term view. All parties need to complete the accession of Iran and Belarus to the SCO in an orderly way, promote the better adaptation of the SCO to the changing situation, and make the SCO more cohesive, effective, and influential.

Qin Gang emphasized that China is ready to further expand cooperation with other member states, join hands on the path to national development and rejuvenation, and continue to make concerted efforts to build a human community with a shared future.

All participating parties spoke highly of the contribution made by the SCO, as an important platform for regional cooperation, to promoting regional security and development, and agreed to further strengthen security cooperation, and jointly combat terrorism, separatism, drug making and trafficking, and cyber crimes. All parties agreed to advance cooperation in such fields as transportation, energy, finance, investment, free trade, and digital economy, promote regional connectivity, deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and realize common development. All parties also agreed to strengthen cooperation on environmental protection, jointly respond to climate change, and promote sustainable development. All parties expressed their support to Afghanistan in achieving national stability and reconstruction and to the SCO in strengthening cooperation with the United Nations (UN) and BRICS countries, among others, to safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and defend multilateralism. All parties agreed to strengthen the capacity building of the SCO Secretariat and regional counter-terrorism institutions, advance the SCO membership expansion process in an orderly manner, and further elevate international influence of the SCO.

The meeting has made full preparations for the SCO Summit to be hosted in New Delhi this summer.