On July 10 local time, the 15th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held in Ufa of Russia. President Xi Jinping, together with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, President Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan and President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, attended the meeting. In his important speech at the meeting, Xi Jinping stressed that all parties should step up efforts and take effective measures to forge a community of common destiny in the region, jointly safeguard the security and stability of the member states, enrich the content of practical cooperation, consolidate the long-lasting good-neighborly friendship, maintain openness and learn from each other, so as to promote the SCO for new leapfrog progress at the new starting point.

The heads of state of the member states first held a restricted-group talk and then invited the leaders of those observers including President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj of Mongolia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan and representatives of international and regional organizations concerned to attend an extended talk. Vladimir Putin chaired the meeting. The meeting summarized the major achievements of the SCO since the Dushanbe Summit held in 2014. The participants exchanged views on the status quo and prospect of the SCO and major international and regional issues at present, reaching broad consensus.

Xi Jinping delivered a speech entitled “Unite and Help Each Other and Address Challenges Together to Promote the SCO for New Leapfrog Progress”.

Xi Jinping pointed out that since the Dushanbe Summit last year, the member states of the SCO have furthered their cooperation, supported each other, intensified their efforts in safeguarding the security and stability in the region and boosted communication and cooperation among themselves, endowing the SCO with continuously enhanced attractiveness and cohesiveness. At the same time, influenced by both internal and external factors, both the security and stability as well as the economic development in the region are confronted with a number of challenges. We should step up efforts and take effective measures to promote the SCO for leapfrog progress at the new starting point.

Xi Jinping put forward a five-point proposal. First, to uphold the “Shanghai Spirit” to build a community of shared destiny in the region. The SCO should continue to take the "Shanghai Spirit" as a guide to safeguard international fairness and justice, advocate multilateralism and the ideal of opening, respect each other's interests, oppose interference in internal affairs of other countries, solve disputes through peaceful means, and boost common development and prosperity with the win-win ideal.

Second, to step up efforts to cement the shield for regional security. The SCO should boost policy communication and coordination and study on the coping measures, jointly safeguard the regimes, systems, social security and stability of all the member states, enhance security cooperation with Afghanistan and forcefully boost cooperation in counter-terrorism, drug control and border defense. China welcomes the signing of the agreement on cooperation in border defense by SCO member states, and is willing to work with all other sides to draw up a treaty on anti-extremism swiftly.

Third, to tap cooperation potential, enrich the content of practical cooperation and take bigger strides in facilitation and liberalization of trade and investment. China is ready to work with all other parties to prioritize the implementation of the connectivity projects that have been agreed. In the next few years, China will push for the completion of 4,000 kilometers of railway and over 10,000 kilometers of highway within the region, so that a layout of interconnected transportation will be basically in place. The SCO should promote its member states to cooperate in building industrial parks, carry out joint production and constantly deepen cooperation in production capacity. The strategic direction to establish an SCO development bank should be adhered to. The SCO member states should intensify cooperation in energy and agriculture, speed up the construction of a platform for environmental-protection information, and ensure the success of the docking between the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Eurasian Economic Union, so as to promote a balanced development in the Eurasian region.

Fourth, to promote amity among the people and consolidate the long-lasting good-neighborly friendship. China supports the SCO member states to continue enhancing cooperation in emergency response and disaster relief, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, facilitation of personnel exchanges and other fields. China will hold youth exchange camp program for SCO in China for five consecutive years and complete summer camp program for 2000 primary and middle school students from other member states by 2018.

Fifth, to keep openness and mutual learning to promote the development of the SCO. The SCO will start the procedures of granting India and Pakistan full membership of the organization after the meeting. China believes that admission of new members into the SCO will inject new impetus into SCO cooperation in all fields. China supports the SCO to continue expanding external exchanges with others, enhance cooperation with its observers and dialogue partners, and improve relevant dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, so as to make the development achievements of the SCO better benefit its observers and dialogue partners.

The heads of state agreed that as the international political and economic landscape is undergoing profound changes and the world multi-polarization has become a major trend at present, the SCO should beef up cooperation to fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism, strengthen the work of the counter-terrorism organizations of the SCO, and jointly address conventional and non-conventional challenges and threats to safeguard the comprehensive security.

The heads of state voiced their support to the initiative of constructing the Silk Road Economic Belt. They believed that all SCO member states should ensure a sustainable economic and social development, facilitate trade and investment, improve infrastructure construction such as logistics and telecommunication, speed up cooperation in such areas as industry, transportation, telecommunication, agriculture and innovation, and deepen cooperation in such fields as culture, science and technology, health care, tourism and sports.

The heads of state highly evaluated the commemorative activities held by SCO member states to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World War II, and expressed profound gratitude to those people who made significant sacrifice and suffered great material loss to free the world from Nazi's oppression and destruction.

The meeting passed a resolution on starting the procedures of granting India and Pakistan full membership of the organization, and agreed to elevate Belarus to the status of observer of the SCO and take in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal as new dialogue partners.

The SCO decided that the SCO Summit in 2016 will be held in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan at the meeting.

The heads of state of the member states signed the Ufa Declaration by the heads of state of the SCO member states and the agreement on border defense cooperation among the SCO member states. They also approved the development strategy until 2025 of the SCO, a 2016-2018 cooperation program on combating terrorism, separatism and extremism among the SCO member states, and the drafting of a treaty on anti-extremism of the SCO, and a series of other resolutions.

A press communique of the Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO Member States, a statement on the 70th anniversary of the World Anti-Fascist War and WWII by the heads of state of the SCO member states, and a statement on coping with the drugs by the heads of state of the SCO member states were issued during the meeting.

Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Yang Jiechi and others were present at above-mentioned events.