SCO embraces Belt and Road Initiative

Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Kazakhstan from June 7 to 10. During his visit, he attended the 17th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the opening ceremony of the World Expo in Astana.

This is Xi's first foreign visit after he presided over the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation between May 14 and 15. It marks an important step forward in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative.

The initiative has been aligned well with Kazakhstan's Bright Road new economic policy.

During the past four years, the Belt and Road Initiative has been turning from a proposal into action, and from a vision into practice.

The SCO had its first-ever membership expansion since it was established in 2001 with the accession of India and Pakistan at the 17th SCO summit in Astana. China took over the rotating presidency of the SCO after the summit and will host its next summit in June 2018, opening a new era of aligning the SCO with the Belt and Road Initiative.

The SCO will connect with the initiative in various fields from anti-extremism to economic and security cooperation. With the two new members, the SCO has greatly increased its influence, as it covers three-fifths of Eurasia and has about half the world population. The SCO will play a more important role in enhancing connectivity for the Initiative and the Initiative is expected to create more opportunities for development of relevant countries.

(The author Wang Yiwei is a professor of International Relations at Renmin University of China.  This is an excerpt from his article which was first published in Chinese. The translator is Li Yang. )