Participants of the SCO Forum on People-to-People Friendship and its Forum on Friendship Cities take a photo together on Thursday in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The SCO Forum on People-to-People Friendship and its Forum on Friendship Cities officially kicked off on Thursday in Qingdao, Shandong province, with some 400 representatives from governments, international organizations, embassies as well as provinces, states, cities and other organizations in attendance.

Titled "Carrying Forward the Shanghai Spirit and Promoting Friendly Cooperation", the two parallel forums aim to promote mutual learning between civilizations and people-to-people exchanges while boosting good-neighborliness and friendly cooperation among member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Shen Yueyue, vice-chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairperson of the Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Commission of the SCO, said the organization prioritizes friendliness and cooperation and is paving a friendly path that meets each country's development needs.

The SCO Forum on People-to-People Friendship and its Forum on Friendship Cities officially kicks off on Thursday in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"We should become practitioners of the 'Shanghai Spirit', inheritors of friendliness for generations and promoters of common development, tolerance and mutual learning," Shen said.

During the forums, the commission released memorandums of cooperation with the Cultural and Integration Center of the SCO Countries and the Silk Road, the Eurasian People's Assembly, the Peace and Friendship Organization of Mongolia and the Nepal China Cultural and Education Council.

The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries signed memoranda of cooperation with the Committee on Interethnic Relations and Friendship Cooperation with Foreign Countries under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Uzbekistan and the SCO Friendship and Cooperation Center of Tajikistan.

The city of Qingdao also signed friendship city agreements with Yerevan in Armenia, Ganja in Azerbaijan and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.