Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday said that members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should deepen mutual trust and resolve disputes and differences through dialogue and consultations, while firmly dealing with terrorist, separatist and extremist forces, reported news agency PTI.

Xi said that history has proved and will continue to prove that good, neighbourly friendship will go beyond a beggar-thy-neighbour approach.

“We need to deepen solidarity and mutual trust and resolve disputes and differences through dialogue and consultations,” PTI quoted Xi as saying on the six-month-long military standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders of the eight-member SCO grouping attended the virtual summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We need to act on the vision of common, comprehensive and sustainable security, address all forms of threats and challenges effectively and foster a sound security atmosphere in our region,” he said.

Countries of the SCO should “resolutely oppose external forces’ interfering in their internal affairs under any pretext,” Xi said.

SCO members should “firmly support countries concerned in law-based efforts to steadily advance major domestic political agenda. Firmly support countries in safeguarding political security and social stability and firmly oppose interference by external forces in the domestic affairs of SCO members under whatever pretext,” he said.

In order to cement the political foundation for SCO development it is important to foil “terrorist, separatist and extremists attempt to exploit the pandemic for disruption, curb the proliferation of drugs, crackdown on internet-based propagation of extremist ideology and deepen SCO members law enforcement cooperation,” he said.

“It is import we support biosecurity, data security and outer space security and engage in active communication and dialogue in this field”, he said. Xi said each civilisation is distinctive, and no civilisation is superior to others.

He called for promoting mutual learning among civilisations, and enhancing good-neighbourly friendship among countries to lay a solid foundation of public support for the long-term development of the SCO.

The SCO founding members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan were admitted into the grouping in 2017. In his address, the Chinese president touched upon the situation in Afghanistan.

Xi said the situation in Afghanistan involves security and stability of the wider region. “We need to make good use of the SCO Afghanistan contact group to help the country realise peace and reconstruction,” he said.