Xi expands platforms for neighborhood cooperation

In addition to bilateral efforts, Chinese President Xi Jinping has attached great importance to regional cooperation to build an amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood. 

The SCO is a case in point. "China has always prioritized the SCO in its neighborhood diplomacy," Xi once said. Since 2013, he has attended every SCO summit, either in person or via video link, promoting closer cooperation among member states on security, development and cultural exchanges. 

Founded in Shanghai in 2001 by China and its neighboring countries, the SCO has had good-neighborliness at the heart of its mission from the outset. "We were the first to conclude a treaty on long-term good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, proclaiming our commitment to forge lasting friendship and refrain from hostilities," Xi said while hosting last year's SCO summit in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. 

Over the past 25 years, the SCO has grown into the world's largest comprehensive regional organization in terms of geographical coverage and population, while expanding cooperation across an ever-widening range of fields.

At the Tianjin summit, Xi announced three China-SCO cooperation platforms for energy, green industry and the digital economy, along with three cooperation centers for scientific and technological innovation, higher education, and vocational and technical education. Open to all SCO countries, these initiatives seek to share the opportunities created by China's development while fostering sustainable development across the region.

The SCO is part of a broader network of multilateral cooperation across China's neighborhood. Under Xi's leadership, China has worked with neighboring countries through mechanisms ranging from Lancang-Mekong Cooperation to ASEAN-centered East Asian cooperation and APEC, promoting greater connectivity, deeper economic integration and closer people-to-people bonds.

In Central Asia, that approach has also been advanced through a new cooperation mechanism initiated by Xi. In 2023, he launched the China-Central Asia Summit in the Chinese city of Xi'an, bringing together China and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Two years later, Xi traveled to Kazakhstan, China's neighbor to the northwest, for the second China-Central Asia Summit. There, the leaders of the six countries signed a treaty on eternal good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, enshrining the principle of everlasting friendship in legal form. Xi said the treaty is "a pioneering initiative in China's diplomatic engagement with its neighbors."

At the summit, host Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highlighted China's role in advancing regional cooperation.

"We have forged an unprecedented model of cooperation based on good-neighborliness, friendship and mutual support," Tokayev said. "It is fair to say that China, under the leadership of the great statesman President Xi Jinping, has played a leading role."