Xi Jinping addresses SCO summit in Bishkek, warns of global crossroads

At the SCO’s summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Xi said the group had shown “strong vitality” since emerging a quarter of a century ago amid the “sobering lessons of the Cold War”.

In a veiled reference to Washington’s system of military alliances, Xi said a key lesson from the bloc’s 25 years of cooperation was “finding the right way to coexist without alliance, confrontation or targeting any third party”.

“Its most significant achievement has been its steady growth into a new type of regional cooperation organisation that now spans the widest territory, encompasses the largest population and holds the greatest development potential in the world,” Xi said, according to state news agency Xinhua.

He said the shadow of the war lingered and the world was at a crossroads, with rivalries between dialogue and confrontation, win-win cooperation and zero-sum competition, and multilateralism versus unilateralism.

“Standing at a crossroads concerning the future and destiny of humankind, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation should bravely shoulder its responsibility and proactively guide the course of history,” Xi said.