Chinese VP stresses defense co-op within SCO

BEIJING - Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said here Tuesday China was ready to make solid efforts with other Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members to advance defense cooperation.

Xi made the remarks as he met with defense ministers from SCO members, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Xi said China placed great importance on defense and security cooperation within the SCO framework. He expressed China's readiness to work with other SCO members to develop a blueprint for defense and security cooperation in the future and make solid efforts to advance practical cooperation in this field.

Xi called for SCO countries to truly enhance the organization's capacity to fend off practical threats, develop a complete system of cooperation and secure long-term stability and prosperity in the region.

Xi emphasized the importance of defense cooperation within the SCO framework, saying that over the past decade such cooperation had borne remarkable fruits by improving the mechanism and enriching the content of cooperation.

SCO defense cooperation had added fresh content to relations among members, injected positive factors into maintaining regional security and made contributions to building a harmonious region, Xi said.

The SCO defense ministers expressed readiness to continue cooperation on joint anti-terrorist military drills, cooperation among border defense forces and other defense and security cooperation in a bid to safeguard regional security and stability.

The SCO defense ministers are in Beijing to attend the SCO ministers' meeting to be held Tuesday afternoon. Also present at the meeting are officials from the SCO Secretariat and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.