TASHKENT, August 24. /TASS/. In order to ensure its global hegemony, the US is trying to dismantle the established security architecture in Southeast Asia, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting of SCO defense ministers on Wednesday.

"As for the southern flank of our organization - Southeast Asia - then there we are also witnessing a set of complex transnational contradictions. Hot spots of tension are being shaped with a hard-to-predict scenario of unfolding developments. In order to ensure [its] global hegemony, Washington is attempting to break up the regional security architecture," the top Russian military official said.

To this end, he noted, military-political blocs are being created such as QUAD and AUKUS.

"The countries in the region are drawn into cooperation with NATO. Following Europe, a front is being put together to contain China. The so-called Taiwan problem is being deliberately worsened, and territorial disputes in the South China and East China Seas are being fomented," he specified.

According to Shoigu, "security in this region can only be ensured by joint efforts keeping in mind the interests of all states with the central role of ASEAN and other multilateral mechanisms of interaction".