Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a keynote speech delivered in Astana on Wednesday, outlined four priorities for the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) over the next decade.

"We should ... make all-out efforts to build the SCO into a regional cooperation organization that features sound institutions, smooth coordination, comprehensive cooperation, openness and harmony," he said at a SCO summit on the 10th anniversary of its establishment.

The first task he proposed is that all the six members of the SCO should stick to their 2007 treaty on good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, step up coordination and consultation on issues concerning their core interests and further beef up mutual trust and support.

"We should adhere to the principle that all countries, big or small, are equal and sincere to each other, and decide matters of significance to the organization on the basis of consensus," Hu added.

The second priority, the Chinese president said, is that the SCO should further improve its security cooperation mechanism and enhance its members' interoperability to fight "the three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism as well as other menaces like narcotics and multinational organized crime.

The third one is that the SCO members further expand economic cooperation, facilitate trade and investment, promote connectivity in transportation, energy and telecommunication infrastructure and steer the region toward economic integration, he said.

"China will continue delivering preferential loans to other SCO members and try to turn the Euro-Asia Economic Forum and the China-Asia-Europe Expo into regional economic cooperation platforms so as to better promote regional economic development and prosperity," Hu said.

The fourth priority he mentioned is that the SCO members should continue to expand people-to-people exchanges in such fields as culture, education, health and tourism, deepen mutual understanding between the peoples and thus consolidate public support for the SCO's future development.

The Chinese president also recalled the SCO's successful development during the past 10 years since its founding in June 2001, stressing that the modus operandi of the SCO represents a new model of national relations in the current world.

"The achievements the SCO has made fully demonstrate that the organization is an important safeguard of regional peace and stability and a strong impetus for the common development and prosperity across the region, and enjoys a beautiful prospect in the future," he said.

Heads of state of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the other five SCO members, joined Hu at the summit, after which China will take over the rotating presidency from Kazakhstan.

The SCO also includes India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan as observer states and Sri Lanka and Belarus as dialogue partners.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2011)