On June 6, China's Minister of Justice He Rong attended the 11th Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Ministers of Justice via video upon invitation and delivered a speech.

He Rong noted that since the successful hosting of the 10th meeting in Shanghai last year, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) of China has earnestly implemented the guiding principles of President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter to the 10th meeting. In collaboration with the ministries of justice of other SCO member states, the MOJ of China has actively carried out the joint statement and various cooperation agreements of the previous meeting, achieving a series of practical outcomes.

She stressed that at the new starting point marking the beginning of the meeting mechanism's second decade, China's MOJ will earnestly implement the consensuses reached at previous SCO summits and deepen exchanges and cooperation in the areas of law and judicial administration among SCO countries, in a bid to provide solid legal guarantees for building a closer SCO community with a shared future. To this end, the minister proposed a three-point initiative at the meeting.

First, she called for upholding and promoting the Shanghai Spirit, improving the mechanism of the Meeting of SCO Ministers of Justice, fully leveraging the platform advantages of the SCO, and comprehensively carrying out multi-channel cooperation on the rule of law.

Furthermore, she emphasized the need to enhance exchanges and mutual learning through representatives' exchange of visits, thematic seminars and joint training, carry forward the SCO advanced training program on legal services, and strengthen exchanges and mutual learning in the areas of administrative legislation and legal services.

Additionally, efforts should be made to deepen cooperation in judicial assistance, judicial appraisal, and legal services, and effectively carry out activities of expert working groups, in a bid to support the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and better promote economic development of SCO countries and regional security and stability, she noted.

The 11th Meeting of the SCO Ministers of Justice was hosted by the MOJ of Kazakhstan. Ministers of justice from SCO countries, representatives from SCO observer states, and representatives from the SCO Secretariat attended the meeting via video link, during which all parties signed a joint statement.