Defense Minister Dong Jun urged defense officials from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Wednesday to strengthen cooperation, unite with progressive forces, safeguard international fairness and justice, and maintain global strategic stability.
He made the remarks in separate meetings in Qingdao, Shandong province, with his counterparts from Belarus, Iran, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, who are attending the two-day SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting.
Dong welcomed the visiting ministers, emphasizing that global geopolitics continues to rapidly change, trends of unilateralism and protectionism keep growing, and acts of hegemony, power politics and bullying have severely jeopardized the international order and have become the primary source of instability and turmoil.
He called on SCO member states to enhance coordination within multilateral frameworks including the United Nations and the SCO, attract more like-minded progressive forces, defend international fairness and justice, and maintain global strategic stability.
He said SCO member states' defense departments must stay true to the organization's founding missions, carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit", strengthen SCO solidarity, deepen practical cooperation, and make concrete measures to jointly preserve the environment for peaceful development.
The visiting ministers highly commended China's efforts as the SCO's rotating chair in improving the organization's operational mechanisms and advancing coope-ration across various fields. They also expressed willingness to consolidate military collaboration.
Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin told Dong that Belarus is honored to attend its first SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting as a full member. He said Belarus looks forward to deepening practical military cooperation between the two nations to enrich the "all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership".
In his meeting with Dong, Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh thanked China for supporting Iran's legitimate stance amid recent conflicts in the Middle East and urged China to "continue to back justice and play a greater role in maintaining the current ceasefire and easing regional tensions".
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said that China played a significant role in preventing recent tensions and conflicts in the region from further escalating. He added that Pakistan "cherishes the iron-clad friendship" with China and will work with China to enhance defense cooperation and safeguard regional peace and stability.
Ruslan Mukambetov from Kyrgyzstan said his country will join hands with China to implement their leaders' consensus and boost military cooperation to strengthen the "comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era".
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told his Chinese counterpart that Russia is willing to deepen strategic military exchanges and cooperation to jointly uphold global strategic stability.
China's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that Dong will chair the ministers' plenary meeting on Thursday and deliver a speech. The event will bring together defense chiefs from SCO member states, along with officials from the SCO Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, it noted.
The SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting, the 22nd of its kind, is one of the key events hosted by China during its rotating presidency of the SCO this year. It aims to further strengthen military mutual trust and practical cooperation among member states. It also seeks to promote the implementation of a joint initiative to build "a common home" for the SCO — featuring solidarity and mutual trust, peace and stability, prosperity and development, good-neighborliness and friendship, and fairness and justice, the ministry said.
The gathering is also expected to contribute to maintaining peace and stability both globally and regionally, while supporting shared development efforts, the ministry added.
The last SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting was held in April 2024 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
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