ASTANA, April 26. /TASS/. The security of Southeast Asia is at risk as radical Islamists return to the region, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"The return of radical Islamists from the Middle East and North Africa to Southeast Asia is creating conditions for the emergence of new hotspots in the medium term," he noted at a meeting of defense ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

That said, establishing a security framework in Eurasia will be an important goal for the organization, the Russian defense chief added.

According to Shoigu, "this will be facilitated by the generally aligned positions of SCO member states on key international issues and the formation of a new world order."