Commentary: The "Shanghai Spirit" shows its strength

Photo taken on May 3, 2018 shows the old town of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit is scheduled for June 9 to 10 in Qingdao, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The "Shanghai Spirit" is the set of values that underpins the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which has inspired solidarity and will continue enlightening member states to pursue a "community of shared future."

The 18th SCO Summit is scheduled for June 9-10 in Qingdao 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 Shanghai Spirit, which features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of common development, has stimulated the member states to cooperate and ensured the development of the SCO.

Adhering to the principle, the SCO has undergone an extraordinary development process and become a comprehensive regional organization with vast influence since its inception in 2001.

It has expanded from an organization focusing on cooperation in regional security and stability, to a platform devoted to extensive cooperation in politics, economy, security, people-to-people exchanges, external contact and mechanism establishment.

The organization's achievements show the uniting power of the Shanghai Spirit, which was enshrined in the SCO Charter.

Guided by the spirit, the SCO became a model for a new form of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation.

Within the SCO, the member states, big or small, rich or poor, have equal say about internal affairs, and reach consensus and achieve shared growth through discussion and collaboration, rather than following a winner-takes-all approach.

The SCO member states go beyond differences in social systems, ideology, and development models, and offer an approach to solving the world's problems in the midst of profound and complex changes.

With India and Pakistan joining, the eight SCO member states now account for over 60 percent of the Eurasian landmass, nearly half of the world's population and over 20 percent of global GDP.

After the expansion, SCO members should enhance cohesion, forge ahead with cooperation, and enrich the Shanghai Spirit to consolidate the future of the SCO.