SCO boosts security, promotes prosperity

President Xi Jinping has wrapped up his state visit to Kazakhstan, where he also attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, lifting the Beijing-Astana partnership to a new level.

Over the past two decades, China has deemed Kazakhstan as one of its pivotal partners. In its neighborhood, China has maintained the most stable and constructive relations with Central Asia, building cordial and cooperative partnerships with all the countries in the region. To further this cause, China and Russia helped form the SCO as a pan-Central Asia security organization in which Kazakhstan plays a key role.

Kazakhstan is a regional heavyweight not only because of its size, but also as a major shaper of pan-Asian security. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed at the United Nations in 1992 the idea of a "Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA)". He conceived it as an Asia-wide security and confidence-building framework, laying the foundation for the present CICA process.