Qingdao summit will strengthen role of SCO

The two-day 18th summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, set to start on Saturday in Qingdao, Shandong province, will provide an opportunity for regional leaders to address issues ranging from terrorism to energy security, and from economic globalization to people-to-people exchanges.

Given that the organization's members account for nearly half of the world's population and more than one-fifth of the global GDP, any consensuses reached at the meeting will be consequential for security, peace and prosperity in the region and beyond.

The SCO was established in 2001 to strengthen regional security and stability by fighting the "three evil forces" of terrorism, extremism and separatism, as well as drug trafficking and cross-border organized crimes. Thanks to institutional and policy coordination, the SCO member states foiled more than 600 terrorist crimes and captured 2,000 members of international terrorist organizations from 2013 to 2017. And with India and Pakistan joining the group last year, the potential for anti-terrorism cooperation has been greatly expanded. The Qingdao summit will undoubtedly help the SCO members improve their capacity for joint security operations and build a more efficient law enforcement cooperation mechanism.