SHANGHAI, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Blue-and-white posters in Chinese, Russian and English festoon Shanghai's major streets this week as China's largest city is ready for what is expected to be a "milestone" summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Thursday, June 15.

    The event will be a gathering of the heads of state of six SCO member countries -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- at the Shanghai International Convention Center in the booming Pudong New District.

    The presidents are expected to review the organization's achievements in the past five years, outline objectives for future cooperation and exchange ideas on major international and regional issues, said SCO Secretary-General Zhang Deguang.

    The summit will pass an SCO declaration and endorse a series of documents, including one on building a new security concept and one on information security, Zhang said. The SCO was set up on June 15, 2001.

    According to an agreement of the member countries, the summit will see participants from the four observer countries as well as the countries and international organizations which have established cooperative relations with the SCO.

    In 2004 and 2005, the SCO accepted Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran as observers. It has also set up official links with many international organizations including the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

    The SCO grew out of the Shanghai Five mechanism, which was founded in 1996. As the birthplace of the SCO, China's metropolitan city Shanghai has witnessed the organization's role in bolstering regional cooperation and China's own efforts in promoting SCO's development.

    Good neighborly ties, active role in international affairs

    The Chinese traditionally value friendship and harmony with their neighbors -- a trait that also features the Chinese government's modern diplomacy.

    In line with the agreement on strengthening military trust and mutual reduction of armed forces in the border areas, China has, through equal consultation, settled historical disputes with Russia and its central Asian neighbors along at least 7,000 km of shared borders.

    It has repeated, on many occasions, the common stand of all SCO members on major regional and international affairs.

    China has played a "very important role" in promoting the establishment of the SCO and the formation of its aims and principles, particularly the Shanghai spirit, which embodies mutual trust and benefit, equality, respect for cultural diversity and a desire for common development, said Shanghai-based Prof. Pan Guang.

    "China has established a close, yet unaligned partnership with Russia and its central Asian neighbors within the framework of SCO, the first intergovernmental international organization based in China," said Pan, who heads the SCO Research Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

    Today, China is heavily involved in many other multilateral cooperation mechanisms including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), ASEAN 10+3, ASEAN 10+1 and the six party talks on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, he said.

    "It's playing an active role in the regional and international affairs," said Prof. Pan.

    Maintaining regional security

    The SCO members are committed to fighting the three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism to maintaining regional peace, security and stability. In this regard, they have set up an anti-terrorism agency to coordinate their anti-terrorist efforts.

    In line with its commitments to regional security and anti-terrorism cooperation, China has participated in three anti-terrorism military exercises with other SCO members and will join in another in Russia next year.

    Meanwhile, China is actively involved in SCO's combat against transnational drug trafficking and related crimes, and has helped the Afghan government in the reconstruction process of Afghanistan, said Prof. Pan.

    China shares 14,799 km of borderline with SCO members and observer countries. "The shared borders will become a link for regional peace and stability," he said.

    Pan said the SCO has advocated a new security concept featuring mutual trust and reduction of armed forces, a concept that will have a far-reaching effect on regional security and development as well as on building a harmonious world.

    Robust trade and economic cooperation boosts common prosperity

    The six SCO member countries take up 60 percent of Eurasia and their population accounts for a quarter of the world's total. The six economies reported a combined GDP of 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2004 and are highly complementary in economic development.

    A cross border pipeline designed to transmit 20 million tons of oil a year started to pipe oil from Kazakhstan to China last month, a move experts say will help enhance China's oil supply and provide an ideal outlet for the oil exports of Kazakhstan and other energy-rich countries in the region.

    To date, SCO members have signed 127 cooperation programs and set up seven professional work teams to promote multilateral cooperation in product quality inspection, customs, e-commerce, investment promotion, transportation, energy and telecommunications sectors.

    To promote multilateral economic cooperation, China pledged in 2004 to offer 900 million U.S. dollars of preferential export buyer's credit to other SCO members.

    China reported nearly 40 billion U.S. dollars of trade with other SCO members in 2005, up 47 percent over that in 2004, according to figures provided by the General Administration of Customs of China.

    "The SCO members have maintained GDP growth rates of six to eight percent on average in recent years," said Li Lifan, deputy secretary-general of the SCO Research Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "They're likely to maintain the growth momentum in the coming five years." Enditem