A regional body working for global security, trade

Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. In the spirit of this proverb and in stark contrast to some countries' beggar-thy-neighbor policies, President Xi Jinping's four-day trip to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has driven home the point that equality, respect and trust can turn good neighbors into good brothers.

And the Bishkek Declaration the 19th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit issued on Friday is a testimony to the strengthening brotherhood in the region, and the SCO family's common wish to deepen their win-win cooperation.

It is this strengthening of relations that Xi highlighted when he said more growth areas of cooperation should be created in the region during his talks with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on the sidelines of the SCO summit on Thursday. That the Bishkek Declaration focuses on safeguarding regional security, promoting trade and people-to-people exchanges, and defending multilateralism speaks volumes about the SCO countries' views, which are starkly different from the unilateral and protectionist practices of some countries.