Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon! Welcome to the Lanting Forum. I am delighted to have this opportunity to exchange views with you on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or the SCO.

In one week's time, the summit to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the organization will be held in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. It will be a historic event that connects the past and future development of the SCO. It will also be a major stage for China's diplomatic activities this year. Taking the summit as an important opportunity to deepen cooperation with all other SCO member states, China is sparing no efforts in making the final preparations for President Hu Jintao's participation.

For the SCO, apart from grand celebration activities, we should buckle down, review the journey of the past 10 years and ask ourselves the following questions. Have the purposes and tasks identified at the inception of the organization been fulfilled? What difficulties and challenges the SCO has encountered in the course of its development? Where should it go from here?

As the summit approaches, we are holding the Lanting Forum today with a focus on the SCO to broaden our horizon and pool wisdom at this historic moment. We hope to explore with you the development of the organization and ways for China to better participate in and promote the SCO cooperation in various fields.

Today we have invited some veteran diplomats, renowned scholars, diplomatic envoys and friends from the media. I thank all of you for attending the forum despite your busy schedules. Some of you have personally engaged in the establishment and development of the SCO. Some have insightful observations on many related issues after following and studying this organization for years. I hope today we can have candid and deep-going exchanges. By way of introduction, I wish to share with you my observations and views to kick off a wonderful discussion.

Ten years ago, the SCO was founded and institutional building just begun. Now it has turned into a mature and highly efficient organization and made remarkable achievements in various areas.

On the political front, mutual trust among member states is constantly increasing. Even before the founding of the SCO, members of the "Shanghai Five," the predecessor of the SCO, had laid a solid foundation of political mutual trust in the process of addressing the boundary questions and enhancing confidence in the military field in border areas, thus paving the way for people in the region to overcome Cold War legacy and conduct friendly cooperation. Since the SCO was founded, member states have firmly supported each other on issues concerning such core interests as independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have coordinated closely and effectively safeguarded their common interests on international and regional affairs. The Treaty on Long-term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation concluded in August 2007 has codified the common aspiration of the people of the member states to carry forward friendship and peace from generation to generation and served as an important safeguard for enduring peace in the region.

As for organic development, smooth progress has been made in institutional building. The SCO has developed a fairly full-fledged institutional system and operational mechanisms, including a multi-tiered, wide-ranging meeting mechanism comprised of the heads of state meeting, heads of government meeting, security council secretaries meeting, heads of ministries and agencies meeting and national coordinators meeting, and two permanent agencies, namely, the Secretariat and the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure. It has all the necessary elements and legal basis for a high-level international organization and enjoys a sound basis for future development.

On the security front, regional peace and stability have been effectively safeguarded. The SCO member states singed the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism at the very first SCO summit, which clearly identifies the fight against the "three forces" as the major task of the SCO. Since then, the member states have signed a number of other security cooperation documents, such as the SCO Convention Against Terrorism, the Anti-drugs Cooperation Agreement and the Agreement on Joint Fight Against Crimes. Thus the SCO cooperation has been gradually expanded and rapidly enriched in wider areas including strategic security, defense security, law enforcement security, information security, counter-narcotics, anti-money laundering and fight against transnational organized crimes. Member states have conducted bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism exercises on a regular basis, collaborated on providing security for major international events, and played a huge role in upholding regional peace and stability.