Cambodian scholars hail Chinese President's proposal

Cambodian scholars on Saturday voiced their support to Chinese President Xi Jinping for his four-point proposal for the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
In the 14th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, on Friday, Xi suggested that the SCO member states, including China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, take responsibility to safeguard regional security and stability, adhere to the goal of common development and prosperity, comprehensively promote people- to-people exchanges, and expand external exchanges and cooperation.
Chheang Vannarith, a senior researcher of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said China has taken significant steps in promoting comprehensive cooperation with SCO member states.
"People diplomacy is one of the core areas of cooperation and China is taking a leadership role in linking the peoples from the region," he told Xinhua.
He said SCO is going to be stronger and plays more significant role in promoting regional peace and development.
"It should explore and strengthen its external relations with other regional institutions and mechanisms such as ASEAN and Summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA)," he said.
Sok Touch, deputy chief of the International Relations Institute, an arm of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said Xi's proposal was aimed to create possibilities for closer cooperation among the SCO member states and to expand SCO's cooperation with other countries.
"The four-point proposal will build more trust and confidence among SCO member states, particularly in economics and politics," he said, adding that China's intention to provide training opportunities to people of the SCO countries would further enhance ties and cooperation between China and those nations.