CRI听力:President Xi to Attend SCO Summit; Visit Four Countries

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to attend the 14th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tajikistan later this week.

Regional security and economic cooperation will top the agenda at the summit in Dushanbe, which runs Thursday and Friday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry says the president will also pay state visits to Tajikistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India after the summit.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping.

"The summit will define how the SCO will deal with threats and challenges in a new situation and come up with the specific measures on security and cooperation, significant to regional stability and development."

Cheng Guoping says the leaders will issue the Dushanbe Declaration and approve a series of documents on SCO expansion at the summit.

In Dushanbe, President Xi is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders.

The SCO brings together China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan as observers.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry is describing the president's pending visits to the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India as another major action in relations with neighboring countries.

Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jianchao.

"We expect this visit to help build a general framework for future cooperation between China and South Asia. We wish to demonstrate our sincerity in further developing our cooperative partnership and traditional friendship with these countries, deepening our mutual trust in politics and security, and carrying forward the strong development momentum in our relationships."

President Xi's visit to the Maldives will be the first ever by a Chinese head of state since the two countries established diplomatic links 42 years ago, while the visit to India will be his first since becoming president.