Pakistan joins Shanghai Cooperation Organization to bring more opportunities for development

Chinese ambassador to Pakistan has said he believes that Pakistan's joining of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will bring more opportunities for the development of the two countries as well as for the SCO.

Ambassador Yao Jing made the statement during a recent interview with the China Central Television (CCTV) in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.

"I think the SCO attaches great importance to cooperation regarding regional security. The greatest challenge to the region supposedly is terrorism, or the three evil forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism. Terrorism is a regional issue and an international issue per se. It requires the largest and widest scale of participation. I believe Pakistan will make a positive contribution in this regard," he said.

In addition to the contribution that Pakistan may bring to the SCO, he also noted that the SCO will be a platform for furthering relations between China and Pakistan.

"We should reflect upon the course of development of China-Pakistan relations. Based on the reflection, we combine the needs of the Belt and Road Initiative. We need to combine our practical needs with historical experience. Then we need to apply them altogether to a broader platform for regional cooperation, including the SCO. In this way, we can promote what we learnt from the development of relations between China and Pakistan, the advantage of the relations, and what works best for the two countries' cooperation on the platform," said Yao.

Yao pointed out that to further the two countries’ relations through the platform including the SCO, China should incorporate the concept of building a new type of international relations and building a community with a shared destiny for mankind, which is known as the concept of the two buildings.

"We should incorporate the new concept of 'the two buildings' into [our reflection on] the new international situation, the new issues, new challenges presented. Keeping the concept in mind, on the one hand, we need to adhere to the Shanghai Spirit to build the new type of international relations on the basis of mutual trust and mutual benefit, with the principle of equal consultation and mutual respect," he commented.

"On the other hand, through economic and security cooperation, there will be more and more communication among peoples and mutual learning, acceptance and common development among civilizations, which echoes with the concept of building a community of shared destiny," he said.

The Shanghai Spirit -- the core value of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) -- has played a significant role in safeguarding regional security and promoting regional development.

The SCO's undergirding values, which features mutual trust, mutual respect, equality, respect for diverse civilizations and pursuit of shared development, was born together with the Shanghai Five mechanism, the precursor of the SCO.