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SCO poses no military threat to anyone: secretary general

Xinhua, March 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will never pose military threat to anyone, its secretary-general said Wednesday.

The SCO has never target anyone, Dmitry Mezentsev told the opening meeting of the tenth session of the SCO Forum in the western Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, dismissing media reports that the SCO increasingly involves defense ministers of the member countries in its work.

"There's no ground to say that the number of troops participating in the Peace Mission drills has been increasing," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

According to Mezentsev, SCO countries cooperate only to counter terrorism, extremism, illegal drug trafficking and arms smuggling.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said at the session that the SCO has to expand its anti-terror network due to instability in the Middle East, Northern Africa and Ukraine.

"Spreading of terrorism could result in explosion of instability throughout the entire region," he said.

The rampancy of terrorism has been a result of some states' attempts to shape the international system under their interests and to prevent formation of a multi-polar global order, Morgulov added.

Founded in 2001, the SCO has China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as its full members, with Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan as observers and Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners.

Russia holds the rotating presidency of the SCO in 2015 with a summit to be held in Ufa in July. Endite