TASHKENT, August 24. /TASS/. The role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a new center of power is growing amid the global turbulent situation, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting of the SCO’s defense chiefs on Wednesday.
"In these conditions, the role of the SCO as a new center of power and an example of inter-state relations based on equality and mutual respect and a guarantor of the observance of international law is invariably growing," the defense chief said.
As Shoigu pointed out, it is important to bolster cooperation in the military sphere and regularly hold consultations in the bilateral and multilateral formats on the issues of common security.
"These approaches are sealed in the final documents prepared for signing in the course of today’s meeting," he said.
Today’s meeting of the SCO’s defense ministers is being held amid an extremely turbulent international situation, Shoigu pointed out.
"Threats are exacerbating both in the region and in the world, local crises are not abating and new serious challenges are emerging," he said.
"The United States of America and the collective West, which are seeking to preserve their global dominance, are exerting unprecedented pressure on independent states. For this purpose, they are using outright blackmail, threats, color revolutions and state coups and spreading gross misinformation," the Russian defense chief said.
As a result of the West’s confrontational actions and the sanctions that it is imposing, the situation in the global economy is deteriorating, relationships are being ruined and a food crisis is being artificially created, Shoigu stressed.