Editor's note: The world is entering a new period of turbulence and change, with issues of concern emerging one after another worldwide. Against this backdrop, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) maintains its position as a comprehensive cooperation grouping which contributes to regional development, peace and stability. With this year's SCO summit being held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 3-4, our special series of articles, "Shanghai Spirit in a Chaotic World," looks at the SCO from different perspectives. In this fifth article of the series, Deng Hao, secretary general of the China Center for SCO Studies and senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), and Li Tianyi, assistant research fellow at the CIIS, debunk the West's false claims against the SCO. The article reflects the authors' opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Diversity and difference are the norm and objective existence of world politics, and how to deal with the diversity of the world has always been a difficult problem in international politics. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which emerged on the world political scene after the Cold War, has actively explored and provided new ideas for solving this problem through its own successful practice.

The SCO advocates the "Shanghai Spirit" of "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development," and adheres to, and practices, the basic principles of "non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties," highlighting its cooperative, inclusive and open nature, in sharp contrast to the confrontational, exclusive and closed nature of international organizations such as NATO – dominated by the United States and the West during the Cold War period, and has taken a new type of multilateral cooperation that transcends the Cold War mentality.

Especially in the context of the current Ukrainian crisis and the intensifying Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the advancement and attractiveness of the SCO concept has become even more pronounced, providing new hopes and paths for avoiding a repetition of the mistakes of the Cold War, breaking through bloc politics and camp confrontation, and resolving the world's diverse problems.

It is obvious that the SCO, as a new type of international organization, is indeed different from the Cold War-type international organizations, but it is by no means an anti-American or anti-Western organization, as some people in the West and the media have stigmatized it.

The SCO was established on the basis of the lessons learned from the Cold War, and it firmly adheres to the policy of non-alignment and non-confrontation. It has been vigorously advocating and practicing a new type of security, development, civilization and global governance with the concept of win-win cooperation at its core, resolutely opposing unilateralism, bloc politics and confrontation, and committing itself to building a new type of international relations and a global community with a shared future, thus adding positive energy and certainty to worldwide and regional stability and development.

The U.S. and the Western media have always viewed the SCO through "tinted glasses," constantly smearing the SCO as "anti-West." This kind of Cold War mindset is determined by the West's hegemonic and pseudo-multilateralist nature. 

It is precisely because of its adherence to the basic principles of non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties that the SCO has, from the day of its establishment, upheld a new type of security concept and embarked on a new path that is completely different from that of the U.S. and the West, which have been obsessed with the formation of military alliance and blocs.

The SCO has resolutely abandoned the Cold War mentality, and has never created an imaginary enemy, but instead focuses its efforts on dealing with non-traditional threats to security, thus effectively safeguarding regional stability, creating a suitable environment for the economic and social development of its member states and for the people of member states to live and work in peace and contentment, and providing an important model for the maintenance of peace and stability for other regions and for the international community as a whole.

Facts have fully proved that the SCO is by no means a "military alliance," but rather a multilateral cooperation organization that has forged a promising path for building a new world order.

At present, the world is experiencing profound changes unseen in a century, and global governance and international security are facing serious challenges. There is an urgent need to accelerate the construction of a just and reasonable new international order, practice genuine multilateralism, and promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.

Against this background, the value of the SCO has come to the fore, and the international community's expectations for the organization have risen sharply. After 23 years of development, the SCO has grown from a seedling that just broke the ground into a big tree, and has become an important constructive force in regional and global governance.

With the concerted efforts of its member states, the SCO will surely play a greater role in building a new type of international relations and a global community with a shared future.

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