Q：  How do you comment on the "Shanghai Five" mechanism? How do you envision the direction of the future development of the "Shanghai Five"?

A：  The "Shanghai Five" is a new cooperation mechanism making its appearance on the Eurasia continent after the end of the Cold War.  The significance of the birth of this mechanism is threefold.  

First, it has turned over a new page in the annals of relations between China and its neighboring countries - Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Tadzhikistan. It has greatly enhanced the good-neighborliness and mutual trust among the five countries and has given a big boost to their cooperation in a broad range of fields.

Second, increased cooperation among the five nations in fighting the forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism has strongly safeguarded peace, security and stability of the region and the world as a whole.  

Third, the spirit of the times advocated by the "Shanghai Five", namely, good-neighborliness and mutual trust, equality and mutual benefit, solidarity and coordination, and common development, has provided valuable experience and enlightenment for the international community to discard the Cold-War mentality, search for new types of state-to-state relations, new security concepts and new models of regional cooperation.  It has also become an important positive factor in facilitating the multipolarization process of the world and the establishment of a fair and reasonable new international economic and political order. The "Shanghai Five" serves the fundamental interest of the five countries and holds out bright prospect as it conforms with the two major trends of peace and development in the post-Cold War period.

As the "Shanghai Five" will inevitably transform itself from a meeting mechanism to a regional multilateral cooperation body, its breadth and depth of cooperation will be greatly extended and its international influence will be further enhanced as well.