Summit visit seen as major diplomatic gesture by China toward its neighbors

President Xi Jinping's attendance at the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, is part of a major diplomatic move by Beijing toward its neighbors and will give a strong boost to the building of the SCO community with a shared future, analysts said.

From Tuesday to Saturday, Xi will attend the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO and make state visits to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced on Sunday.

Xi has attended the SCO summit for 11 consecutive years since 2013 and delivered speeches to each gathering in a face-to-face or virtual format.

He has frequently emphasized the need to carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit" — a tenet of the grouping that features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development.

In addition, Xi has issued China's initiatives at the gatherings on boosting solidarity and cooperation within the grouping. For example, at last year's summit, hosted by India, he announced that the country will carry out digital technology training programs in collaboration with the China-SCO Big Data Cooperation Center, and will host an SCO national green development forum.

The upcoming visit is "another major diplomatic action of China toward Central Asian countries" and the Eurasian region, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday.

Sun Zhuangzhi, director of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Xi's visit will further pool strength for the SCO to work together in the same boat, promote the quality and upgrading of cooperation in many fields, including economy, security and culture, and "inject more positivity into world peace and development".

At the summit in Astana, leaders of member states will discuss a wide range of topics such as politics, trade, economy and culture. Leaders of observer states and dialogue partner countries will also attend, according to the Kazakh government.

The summit will witness the signing of a series of documents, including the SCO Development Strategy through 2035, Kazakh officials said.

In the 23 years since its founding, the SCO has made remarkable achievements in maintaining the region's security and stability, deepening practical cooperation in various fields, and increasing its international influence and appeal, analysts said.

SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming suggested that the member states continue to carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit" and advance the implementation of the organization's teamwork in various fields.

While attending a forum last month in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Zhang also called for strengthened reform and improvement of the organization's work to ensure that SCO cooperation "keeps pace with the times and moves to new heights".

Guan Xueling, director of the Renmin University of China-St. Petersburg State University Center for Russian Studies, said the Astana summit will testify to the organization's growing influence and international status.

Topics will include the SCO's plans for further development, how to better synergize the Belt and Road Initiative with the development visions of other member countries, and how to truly realize the strategic autonomy of the Global South, Guan said at a recent seminar in Beijing.

"Given the dampened international turmoil, crises and global governance deficit, the SCO has become a very important player in maintaining the region's security and stability and fostering development and prosperity," she added.

Zhao Huirong, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, said the SCO faces a number of opportunities as well as multiple challenges.

"The opportunities include the fact that the SCO is being favored by an increasing number of developing countries because of its commitment to the 'Shanghai Spirit' amid the persistent geopolitical confrontations in the world," she said.

At the same time, the SCO faces a much more complex geopolitical environment, a tougher regional and international security setting, and a number of alarming areas related to unconventional security, she added.

Vladimir Norov, former SCO secretary-general and former foreign minister of Uzbekistan, said the organization's spirit of solidarity, mutual trust and collaboration is "particularly precious in today's world".

"The SCO should keep on cooperating in this spirit in the fight against the three evil forces (separatism, extremism and terrorism), tackling climate change, the response to cyberattacks, and ensuring the security of artificial intelligence," he told the newspaper 21st Century Business Herald.