Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Ivanov wants SCO defense ministries to forge cooperation accord

The SCO which represents nearly 50 percent of the world's population when including members with observer status, desires to be a serious force in international affairs. This can be seen in the granting of observer status to India (at Russia's request), Pakistan (at China's insistence) and Iran (to the delight of all members).
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It looks like the SCO is forging a fighting force which if it takes wing will be one colossal army.

-Am


Apr 26 2006 9:48AM

BEIJING. April 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia's proposal to draft an agreement on cooperation between the defense ministries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's member-states "is expected to broaden military cooperation with due account taken of the situation in the region."

"It would also facilitate our dealings with other international organizations, including the Collective Security Treaty Organization," Ivanov told the press in Beijing on Wednesday after a meeting of the SCO defense ministers.

"We'll thus declare and outline the real target and tasks of military cooperation between the SCO member-states, and defuse speculation regarding our plans," he said.

The SCO defense ministries should cooperate "in shaping mechanisms of dealing with emergencies that could put peace and stability in the vast Eurasian region in jeopardy," the Russian defense minister said.

The SCO defense ministries must interact in fighting terrorism, extremism and separatism, in training military personnel and in reinforcing border controls, said Ivanov. sd
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11504843