SCO members oppose trade protectionism of any form: Xi

QINGDAO: Chinese President Xi Jinping said Sunday the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members will uphold the authority and efficacy of WTO rules, strengthen an open, inclusive, transparent, non-discriminatory and rules-based multilateral trading regime, and oppose trade protectionism of any form.

Xi made the remarks at a joint press conference of the 18th SCO summit in east China's coastal city of Qingdao. "We point out that economic globalization and regional integration are the compelling trend of our times," Xi said.

"All parties will continue to work in line with the principle of mutual benefit to improve regional economic cooperation arrangements, enhance the Belt and Road cooperation and complementarity of our respective development strategies, deepen cooperation in business, investment, finance, connectivity and agriculture, advance trade and investment facilitation, and foster new prospects for integrated development of the region to deliver benefits to our people and add fresh impetus to global growth," he said.

Meanwhile, a press communique was issued after the 18th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held on Saturday and Sunday in the coastal city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province.

Member states emphasized that the SCO has seen continuously expanding potential for cooperation after the accession of India and Pakistan, and has become a unique, influential and authoritative regional organization, the communique said.

SCO members consistently support the mediation of conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula, as well as other regional conflicts under the frameworks of widely-acknowledged norms and principles of international law, it said.

The member states pointed out that it is very important to continue the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, the document said. The 2019-2021 program of cooperation for combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, approved at the summit, will further promote pragmatic cooperation among member states in this respect, it added.

Leaders of member states support a series of work on the education of youngsters to prevent them from participating in destructive activities. To that end, the summit passed a joint message from leaders of SCO members to young people, the document said.

In the communique, SCO member states also stressed the significance of improving the global economic governance system, consolidating and developing the multilateral trade mechanism with the World Trade Organization at its core, and building an open world economy.