Address to the SCO summit, attended by 20 countries including Russia and India, aimed at the US, calling for"preventing bullying."

"We must protect the UN system and the WTO multilateral trading system and promote orderly multipolarization."

(Beijing = Yonhap News) Correspondent Jeong Seong-jo = China has announced its intention to raise the level of cooperation by creating a security threat response organization and a development bank within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech at the 25th meeting of the SCO Council held in Tianjin, China on the 1st,"We will promptly launch a comprehensive center for responding to security threats and challenges and a center for countering drug abuse, and promptly establish an SCO Development Bank to provide stronger support for member countries' security and economic cooperation."

The SCO is a multilateral consultative body established in 2001 by China and Russia along with four Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. With the addition of India and Pakistan in 2017, Iran in 2023, and Belarus in 2024, the number of member countries has now increased to 10.

Initially, the focus was on security cooperation, including countering terrorism and separatism, but as the conflict between China, Russia, and the West became more pronounced, the scope of cooperation has recently expanded to include economic and cultural areas.

In particular, China is being evaluated as having emerged as a 'US check and balance alliance' along with BRICS, as it is working hard to unite the Global South (mainly emerging and developing countries located in the Southern Hemisphere) to counter the United States and others.

Although the Chinese leader did not directly mention the United States in his speech that day, he continued to make indirect criticisms of the United States and assert that China is an"alternative" to the international order.

The city council said,"We must promote a correct view of World War II history and oppose Cold War mentality, partisan confrontation, and bullying behavior."

He continued,"We must protect the international system centered on the United Nations and the multilateral trading system centered on the World Trade Organization (WTO), and promote an equitable and orderly global multipolarization and universally beneficial economic globalization to build a more fair and rational global governance."

In his speech at the 'SCO Plus (+)' meeting in the afternoon, Xi Jinping also proposed a 'global governance initiative.'

He said,"All countries, regardless of size, strength, or wealth, should be able to equally participate, make decisions, and benefit from global governance," and "We will promote the democratization of international relations and increase the representation and voice of developing countries."

He also said,"We must fully, sufficiently, and completely comply with the fundamental principles of international relations recognized by the purpose and principles of the UN Charter, and guarantee the equal and unified application of international law and international rules," adding,"We must not use double standards, and we must not force the 'house rules' of a small number of countries on other countries."

Meanwhile, he also emphasized China's economic role, saying that China's investment in SCO member countries has exceeded $84 billion (approximately 117 trillion won) to date, and that annual bilateral trade between individual member countries and China has exceeded $500 billion (approximately 696 trillion won).

He also explained that China is planning 100"small but beautiful" (小而美) livelihood projects to provide short-term funding to SCO member countries in need of Chinese investment, and that it will provide 2 billion yuan (approximately 390 billion won) in grant aid within this year and 10 billion yuan (approximately 1.95 trillion won) in new loans to member banks of the banking association over the next three years.

China is touting this SCO summit as the"largest ever."

The summit was attended by leaders from 20 countries, including President Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Iranian President Masood Pezeshyan, as well as 10 officials from international organizations.