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SCO has no plans to become military-political alliance

Its constitutional documents clearly fix that the SCO is not a military-political union

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, June 9 (Itar-Tass) — The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has no plans to become a military-political alliance, Russian president’s envoy for SCO affairs, Ambassador at Large Kirill Barsky told reporters on Saturday.

“Although security is priority in the activity of the organization, its constitutional documents clearly fix that the SCO is not a military-political union,” Barsky noted. “However, military cooperation is conducted, and antiterrorist exercises are organized, which don’t involve activity envisaging the setting up of military-political unions,” he stressed.

The envoy marked that at the SCO summit in Beijing corrections were made in the provision on political-diplomatic measures of reaction in connection with the changing situation in the world.

Focusing on possible kinds of reaction he mentioned, in particular, the convocation of special sessions, the dispatch of missions to look into the reason behind the developments, humanitarian and economic aid to the injured state, evacuation of people.

So, a new version of the provision was drawn up “so that these measures could be used within a very short period of time,” the diplomat explained. “But these measures can be applied only with the consent of the injured state,” Barsky summed up.

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