Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of maintaining the Shanghai Spirit in his speech at the just-concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. "This spirit rejects exclusive blocs and confrontational thinking, and features a commitment to building cooperation based on mutual respect," said Yersultan Zhanseitov, a senior expert at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of Kazakhstan.

The two-day 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, came to a conclusion in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Thursday.