BISHKEK, April 28. /TASS/. Military cooperation between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states should be bolstered and the expansion of anti-terrorist command and staff exercises Peaceful Mission could help, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said.
"As part of our meeting, we propose to focus on solving the following tasks. First, to increase the SCO military cooperation. Identify threats in a timely manner and develop joint response measures. Secondly, to pay due attention to joint operational and combat training to ensure military security," Belousov told a meeting of SCO defense ministers.
To this end he proposed to continue joint military anti-terrorist command and staff exercises Peaceful Mission, to expand their scope, subject matter and information coverage.
Belousov said another task was to further strengthen cooperation between the SCO and other international security structures, primarily the CSTO and the CIS. He said that "the current realities clearly show the need to form common approaches to strengthening peace and stability."
"The conflicts provoked by the West have led to a complete collapse of the Euro-Atlantic model, the mechanisms of which have turned into instruments of geopolitical pressure," the Russian defense minister said.
He said that the initiative put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin to create an equal and indivisible Eurasian security architecture is designed to overcome the existing challenges. "The emphasis is on reducing the risks of escalation of the hotbeds of tension into large-scale conflicts and stabilization of the military-political situation. We believe that the SCO is an important link in achieving this goal," he said.
He expressed confidence that "the results of today's work will contribute to increasing cooperation between the defense departments of the SCO countries, strengthening the organization's authority in the international arena and ensuring regional security."