Member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should resist interference by outside forces in the affairs of the SCO region, Chinese State Council Premier Li Qiang said at a meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of SCO Member States in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
“We should jointly build a strong regional security barrier and strongly resist external interference and bloc-based confrontation,” he said.
Li also urged SCO countries to improve the organization’s mechanisms for rapidly responding to security threats and challenges as well as to fight transnational organized crime and the “three forces of evil: terrorism, separatism and extremism.”
In addition to Li, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Sadyr Japarov, representing the host nation, and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin are attending the meeting, along with the heads of government of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the vice president of Iran, and the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan. Representatives of all eight participating countries are present at the meeting.
The SCO secretary general, the director of the executive committee of the regional anti-terrorist structure, the heads of the business council and the interbank association will deliver progress reports.
Also invited to attend the event are the heads of government of Belarus and Mongolia (both SCO observer states), a senior representative of Turkmenistan (as a guest of the host country), and the heads of the executive bodies of international partner organizations the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
