Chinese president hails development of SCO

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YEKATERINBURG, Russia, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday hailed the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Addressing the organization's summit, Hu said that in the eight years since its establishment, the SCO, enjoying ever growing vitality, has developed into one of the most influential regional constructive mechanisms with its role of maintaining its member states' rights of peaceful development, promoting regional security and stability as well as enhancing mutually-beneficial and win-win cooperation among members.

In the past year, cooperation in various fields among the SCO members has developed in parallel, while mutual political trust and traditional friendship has been continuously enhanced and consolidated, Hu said.

He said the advantage of a multi-level and comprehensive security cooperation mechanism has been fully demonstrated and joint law enforcement has yielded rich fruits.

Trade and investment has grown steadily, and such cooperation in disaster relief, culture, health and tourism has been steadily deepened, and the notion of a friendship running from generation to generation has sunk deep, Hu said.

The successful holding of the Special Conference on Afghanistan last year added one more remarkable chapter to the organization's external relations, and China is heartily pleased by the achievements of the SCO, Hu said.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an inter-governmental organization founded on June 15, 2001 in east China's Shanghai municipality by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

According to its charter, the SCO works to strengthen mutual trust and good neighborliness and friendship among member states, develop effective cooperation in a wide range of areas, work together to maintain regional peace, security and stability and promote the creation of a new international political and economic order which is fair, reasonable and democratic.