On April 24, 2018, when meeting the press after presiding over the Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed that the Qingdao Summit marks a return of the SCO to its birthplace, China again following the Beijing Summit in 2012. The Qingdao Summit is also to be held under the background that the SCO has realized membership expansion for the first time and entered a critical development period, which will certainly set the SCO on a new journey of continuous and forward-looking development.

Wang Yi expressed that the Qingdao Summit will be impressive in various aspects and will also present many highlights.

First, the "Shanghai Spirit" will be carried forward once again. The fundamental reason for the SCO's development and growth is that the member states have always been firmly upholding the "Shanghai Spirit". We will take the Qingdao Summit as an opportunity to review the "Shanghai Spirit", enhance unity and mutual trust among all member states, and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, so as to jointly build an even closer community with a shared future.

Second, mutually beneficial cooperation will start again. At this Summit, leaders of the member states will make important plans for the organization's future development on the basis of earnest summary of past experience. The Summit will ratify the implementation outline for the Treaty on Long-term Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation of the SCO Member States in the coming five years. A series of resolutions and cooperation documents covering security, economy, trade, and people-to-people and cultural engagement will be signed or ratified, which will play an important role in promoting the member states to deepen cooperation in various fields.

Third, the SCO will enjoy a new starting point. This June, heads of state or heads of government from the eight member states and four observer states of the SCO, and from guests of the chair country, as well as principals of relevant international organizations will gather together to jointly discuss the strategies of development, and jointly promote the undertakings of cooperation. The Qingdao Summit will surely further improve the SCO's international influence, becoming a new starting point of the SCO's development. All member states will hold high the banner of the "Shanghai Spirit" to jointly set the SCO on a new journey of continuous and forward-looking development.