All news

No plans to turn Shanghai Cooperation Organization into military bloc — Russian diplomat

The situation in Afghanistan remains top on the agenda of the SCO bloc of Central Asian states

MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. There are no plans to turn the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) into a military bloc or make it purely an integration economic entity, the chief of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Asian-Pacific cooperation department said on Friday.

The situation in Afghanistan remains top on the agenda of the SCO bloc of Central Asian states, Bakhtier Khakimov said, adding that it does not intend, however, to shoulder the burden of military affairs in the country.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization [of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan] "is an ideal regional platform for establishing vital mutual understanding on reconciliation and accord in Afghanistan," Bakhtiev Khakimov said.

Focusing on fight against Afghanistan’s drug trafficking problem, the diplomat said "drugs have for a long been a source for fueling terrorist activity".

"Work [to fight drug trafficking] proceeds actively. We are ready to continue joint efforts in international formats," Khakimov said, adding that "all efforts towards normalization in Afghanistan should proceed with a coordinating role of the UN Security Council".