Heads of SCO defence ministry departments meet in Moscow

On June 10, the department heads of the SCO defence ministries responsible for military cooperation met in Moscow. The meeting was attended by delegations from Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

They discussed preparations for the SCO Defence Ministers Meeting in St.Petersburg on June 29-30. "It will be a vital meeting in that its participants will discuss our performance last year and make plans for the future," Sergey Koshelev, Chief of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, said in his opening remarks.

Koshelev pointed to recent serious complications within the SCO zone of responsibility. "Our countries are feeling the pressure of terrorism, religious extremism, missile technology, drug trafficking and cybercrime. We believe that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is an important venue for dialogue on all of these issues, where we can exchange opinions to formulate collective responses to these challenges and threats," he said.

The meeting participants have coordinated the draft of the documents that will be forwarded to the SCO defence ministers for signing in St.Petersburg on June 30.