NEW DELHI, April 28. /TASS/. The conflict in Ukraine has made it clear that Washington and its allies are aiming to provoke other countries into sparking a military standoff with Moscow and Beijing, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday.

"Today, Washington and its collaborators are implementing their strategic plan to provoke other countries into a military standoff with Russia and China. The conflict in Ukraine serves as a striking confirmation of this criminal policy. Its actual goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, create a threat for China and preserve [the US’] monopoly position in the world," Shoigu pointed out at a meeting of the defense ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states in New Delhi.

According to him, "this is why over $5 billion was spent on the anti-constitutional ‘Maidan’ coup [in Ukraine] in 2014, which led to the emergence of a hostile nationalist, Russophobic regime that set out with particular zeal to resolve the ‘Russian question’ in Ukraine." "Given Kiev’s refusal to implement the Minsk Agreements and the real threat facing residents of the Donbass, we decided to launch a special military operation," Shoigu noted.

On Friday, the Indian capital is hosting an SCO defense ministers meeting that brings together the defense chiefs of India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the SCO secretary general, the director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, and the defense ministers of Belarus and Iran, which hold the status of SCO observers.