Prior to the 12th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing, Chinese President Hu Jintao accepted a joint written interview by People's Daily and the media of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The full text of the interview is as follows:

The 12th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the SCO will be held in Beijing soon. What do you think of the development achievements made by the SCO over the past more than one decade and its future development? What are your expectations for the summit?

The SCO has been fulfilling the mission of safeguarding regional peace and promoting common development since its establishment. In the extraordinary course of development, member states have moved forward hand in hand and jointly made major achievements.

First, creating a new mode of relations between countries. By the conclusion of the SCO Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, member states finalized the idea of friendship for generations and lasting peace in the legal form. Being committed to developing good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, we have brought our mutual trust, mutual benefit, unity and cooperation to an unprecedented high level.

Second, establishing values which are compliant with the trends of peace and development. Guided by the Shanghai Spirit of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultations, respect for diversified civilizations and common development, member states seek common ground while reserving differences, coexist in harmony and pursue common development. Running throughout the history of the SCO's development, the Shanghai Spirit is a valuable asset of the SCO, and provides useful experience for the building of new international relations and the development of international political and economic order in a more fair and reasonable direction.

Third, maintaining regional peace and stability. The SCO has clearly set up the goals of combating terrorism, separatism and extremism from very early on, signed the Counterterrorism Convention, determined political, diplomatic and security measures of response to events jeopardizing regional peace, security and stability, held a dozen joint anti-terrorism military exercises, conducted special law enforcement and security operations, effectively curbed the "three forces," drug trafficking and transnational organized crimes and played an important role in maintaining regional peace and stability.

Fourth, promoting the common development of countries in the region. Through the signing of the Program of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation, member states have gained significant progress in the cooperation projects of transportation, energy and communications. China has pledged to provide over $12 billion of preferential loans to support those projects. The percentages of member states' total foreign trade and economic aggregate to that of the world's total both increased to 13 percent from respectively 8 percent and 4.8 percent 10 years ago. The continuous progress of the SCO cooperation on culture, education, health, science and technology, emergency rescue and other areas has vigorously boosted the common development of countries in the region.

Fifth, raising the SCO's international status and influence. Following the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the SCO has conducted extensive international cooperation through its two permanent agencies, the Secretariat and the Regional Counterterrorism Structure, accepted four observers and two dialogue partners and established relations and cooperated with the UN and other international and regional organizations. The SCO takes an active part in the efforts of solving the Afghan issue. Making contributions to accelerating the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan, it has become an indispensable force to deal with the security issue in the region.

The achievements of the SCO fully prove that this organization is an important guarantee of regional peace and stability, a strong driving force for the common development and prosperity of countries in the region and a new regional cooperation organization responding to the trends of the times.

The world today is undergoing major development, major changes, and major adjustments, and all countries are faced with unprecedented opportunities and challenges. The next decade will be a crucial period for the development of all the member states, and the SCO itself. We will uphold the Shanghai Spirit, share opportunities, face challenges together, help each other and make pioneering efforts to build a new mode of regional cooperation. We will continue to focus on security cooperation and pragmatic cooperation; comprehensively deepen and expand the exchanges and cooperation among member states; strive to create a political environment featured by unity and harmony, a peaceful and stable security environment, a mutually beneficial development environment and a harmonious and friendly international environment; make the SCO serve as a reliable security guarantee, an effective platform for cooperation and a link of friendship between the people of member states; and make greater contributions to maintaining member states' common interests and promoting regional economic development.

In the upcoming Beijing summit, we will carry forward our cause and forge ahead into the future. Participating heads of member states will carefully study the opportunities and challenges brought by the changes in the international and regional situation to the development of the SCO and plan the future development of the organization. A series of important cooperation documents will be approved and signed during the summit to make clear the strategic direction and objectives of the long-term development of the SCO. I believe that the summit will achieve full success and write a new chapter of development for the SCO with the joint efforts of all parties.

Compared with other international and regional organizations, what are the distinct features of the SCO?

In today's world, cooperation of international and regional organizations is on the rise. The reason that the SCO is able to thrive is because it explores and finds a new road of cooperation, responds to the call of the times for peace and development, conforms to the common aspiration of people of member states for peace, development and cooperation and creates a new security concept, a new partnership concept, a new concept of development and a new concept of civilizations with the Shanghai Spirit as the core.

The new security concept advocated by the SCO is to firmly safeguard member states' sovereignty, security and development interests, unswervingly support the development path chosen by member states according to their national conditions, resolutely support countries in the region to decide the regional affairs, oppose all kinds of interventionism, keep a close watch on the impact of turmoil outside the region and create a favorable external environment for the development of member states.

The new partnership concept advocated by the SCO is to insist on seeking peace, promoting development and resolving disputes through cooperation, adhering to partnership and nonalignment, strengthen consultation and communication on issues involving the core interests of member states, step up coordination and cooperation on major international and regional issues and safeguard the common interests of member states and developing countries.

The new concept of development advocated by the SCO is to adapt to the general trend of economic globalization, take into account the features of regional economic development, achieve mutual benefit through complementing each other with advantages of member states based on their own strategic planning, create favorable conditions for member states' development and help them grow the economy and improve people's livelihoods.

The new concept of civilizations advocated by the SCO is to promote the exchanges among civilizations, recognize the different cultural traditions, social systems, values and cooperation requirements of countries, respect each other's independent choices and make civilizations coexist in harmony through learning from each other and seeking development while putting aside differences.

The SCO upholds the principle of nonalignment and non-confrontation, promotes the harmony and common development of countries with different culture, religion and social systems, properly handles various threats and challenges, safeguards the momentum of stable economic and social development of member states, maintains the strong vitality and powerful attraction and has become the role model of deepening good-neighborly friendship and cooperation, promoting common development and prosperity, maintaining regional peace and stability and carrying out civilization dialogue among countries of Eurasia. In the future, member states will make joint efforts to further improve the regional cooperation mode and bring more benefits to the people of member states.

The development of the SCO has entered the second decade. At present, the international and regional situation has undergone profound changes and the security challenges become more complex. How will the member states jointly address the threats and challenges in the security field?

At present, the international situation is complicated and fluctuating, regional hot-spot issues keep emerging, the international financial crisis is not over yet, the "three forces" in the region tend to recover and drug trafficking and transnational organized crime remains active, all of which have brought unstable and uncertain factors to the security and development of the region. In this context, we must strengthen solidarity and cooperation to safeguard regional peace and stability and boost common development.

We will adhere to the new security concept, focus on comprehensive security, common security and cooperative security and enhance capability against real threats and risks. We will stick to the principle that regional affairs should be decided by countries in the region, keep a close watch on the impact of turmoil outside the region and play a bigger role in the peaceful reconstruction process of Afghanistan. We will target the core issues and key factors of regional security, establish a more comprehensive security cooperation system and enhance the capacity and efficiency of preventing and addressing risks. We will reinforce communication, coordination and collaboration on major international and regional issues and maintain the common security and development interests of member states.

The Beijing summit will revise the SCO Regulations on Political and Diplomatic Measures and Mechanism of Response to Events Jeopardizing Regional Peace, Security and Stability and approve the 2013-2015 Cooperation Program of the SCO Member States on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism. I believe that these new initiatives will enable the SCO to better safeguard regional peace, security and stability.

During the summit, how will member states boost the friendly cooperation in various fields? What are the initiatives to strengthen the infrastructure construction, the economic and trade investment and the financing guarantee mechanism?

One of the main topics of this summit is to study measures to further strengthen the friendship and cooperation of member members. We will actively explore the long-term strategy of peace, development and cooperation of member states under the new circumstances. Related initiatives will be written in the declaration of the summit on building a region with lasting peace and common prosperity and the Strategic Plan for the Medium-Term Development of the SCO.

Transportation is one of the cooperation priorities of member states. At present, member states are making consultations on the signing of the International Road Transport Facilitation Agreement. The signing of this document will facilitate the development of a road network covering the SCO region, tap the huge transport potential of the region, create conditions for the efficient and convenient flow of commodities and goods and the people-to-people contacts and help member states to accelerate economic growth and improve people's living standards. We will actively promote the establishment and improvement of the financing guarantee mechanism of the SCO. China hopes such mechanism can be established earlier and better serve the economic growth of member states and the regional development.

How will the SCO member states strengthen collaboration to solve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue, the Afghan and other hot-spot issues?

The SCO member states have established the mechanism of regular consultations on international and regional issues of common concern. We coordinate positions and make due contributions to pushing for the appropriate solution of related issues.

Member states agree that dialogue and consultation are the only correct choice of resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and hope to promote the denuclearization of the peninsula through the six-party talks and safeguard peace and stability in the peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

Member states support the six countries to open a sustainable process of dialogue with Iran and to solve the Iranian nuclear issue through political and diplomatic means and appeal to all parties concerned to avoid the words and actions which might lead to further escalation of confrontation. This is of great practical significance to maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East and seeking a comprehensive, long-term and proper solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

The SCO supports Afghanistan to become an independent, peaceful, prosperous and good-neighborly country without terrorism or drugs and backs up the leading role of the UN in coordinating the assistance efforts to Afghanistan. The SCO has established the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group. This summit will accept Afghanistan as an observer. The SCO will continue to hold relevant consultations and meetings and support the reconstruction process in Afghanistan with concrete actions.

During the summit, the heads of state of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will all visit China. What do you think of China's bilateral relations with those member states?

China and Russia are the most important strategic partners of each other. Their bilateral relations maintain the good momentum of positive and healthy development. The two sides are committed to developing the all-round strategic partnership of cooperation featured by equality and mutual trust, mutual support, common prosperity and friendship from generation to generation and actively implement the development planning of the bilateral relations within the next decade. The bilateral cooperation in various fields has achieved fruitful results. Firmly supporting each other on issues involving each other's core interests, the two sides enjoy ever increasing political mutual trust. The bilateral trade volume last year hit a new record of nearly $80 billion. A number of strategic cooperation projects have been implemented or are under negotiations. The quality and scale of pragmatic cooperation are being enhanced. The bilateral tourism year activities are being conducted and people-to-people exchanges remain thriving. China and Russia keep close coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs, jointly maintain common interests and safeguard the UN Charter and norms governing international relations.

President Vladimir Putin's state visit to China in early June was his first visit to China since he took office as the new president. I believe that President Putin's visit was a success with the joint efforts of both sides and provided new impetus to the in-depth development of the bilateral cooperation in various fields. China-Russia relations with closer cooperation are beneficial to our two countries and the world at large.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are all SCO member states and China's friendly neighbors and important cooperative partners. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Central Asian countries. Over the 20 years, China and the Central Asian countries have established the cooperation principles of mutual respect, equal treatment, mutual benefit and common development, built a high degree of mutual political trust, formed the comprehensive mechanisms of high-level meetings and bilateral cooperation, achieved fruitful results of pragmatic cooperation, conducted effective security cooperation, expanded people-to-people exchanges, maintained close collaboration in international and regional affairs and raised the bilateral relations to higher levels.

Looking into the future, the bilateral relations between China and Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will enjoy a stronger foundation, richer connotation and broader prospects. We are willing to work with the five countries and take the opportunity of the summit and the visit of the five heads of state to China to write a new chapter of good-neighborly friendship and common development.