Minister calls for ensuring SCO's role as anchor of stability

China is willing to work with member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to ensure the SCO's crucial role as an anchor of stability at a time of turbulence and geopolitical changes, Defense Minister Dong Jun said on Thursday.

Dong told his counterparts from other SCO member states who came to Qingdao, Shandong province, for the organization's annual defense ministers' meeting that China is willing to work together with all member states to realize the founding purposes of the SCO, carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit", firmly safeguard international fairness and justice, jointly address security challenges, and promote steady and sustainable cooperation in the defense and security fields, in order to provide stronger support for building a common home that features solidarity and mutual trust, peace and stability, prosperity and development, goodneighborliness and friendship, and fairness and justice.

At the meeting, all participants agreed to enhance strategic communication, push forward practical cooperation, and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability.

According to the Defense Ministry, defense chiefs from SCO member states, along with officials from the SCO Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, took part in the SCO Defense Ministers' Meeting, the 22nd of its kind.

Also on Thursday, Dong held separate meetings with SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev and the defense ministers of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and India.

Dong said that the SCO serves as a crucial force in practicing true multilateralism and maintaining global strategic stability.

He noted that the Qingdao meeting has demonstrated the member states' determination to uphold the "Shanghai Spirit" and deepen solidarity and cooperation.

The Chinese minister urged SCO member states to join hands in implementing the meeting's consensus, handling severe challenges posed by unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism, and injecting more certainty and positive energy into regional prosperity and stability.

China is ready to enhance collaboration with the defense departments and militaries of all member states, advance defense and security cooperation, and contribute to building a closer SCO community with a shared future, he said.

Li Shuyin, a researcher on Central Asian and Russian military studies at the PLA Academy of Military Science, said: "The current international situation is rather complex, with many ongoing conflicts, some of which even involve SCO member states. Against this backdrop, the gathering of defense ministers is not only a routine arrangement but also a platform to forge shared understanding on pressing security challenges and explore ways to better uphold regional stability and security."

According to Zhang Chi, a professor at PLA National Defense University, this has been the first time that as many as 10 defense ministers attended such a meeting, and China has shown its openness, inclusiveness and sense of responsibility, as well as its commitment to solidarity, shared security and joint action.