Defense ministers of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met in Tashkent, Uzbekistan today and were addressed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. At the outset, Shoigu stated that the SCO was becoming a new center of international power, and forcefully asserted that “the conflict in Ukraine is just another pretext … to strategically deplete Russia to eliminate rivalry and warn other states pursuing an independent foreign policy.”
He elaborated that, under the conditions of a turbulent international environment, “the role of the SCO as a new center of power, a model of relations between states based on equality and mutual respect, a guarantor of international law is steadily growing,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported on its Telegram channel. “Therefore,” he stressed, “it is important to strengthen cooperation in the military sphere and consult regularly in bilateral and multilateral formats on issues of common security. Such approaches are documented in the outcome documents prepared for signature during the current meeting.”
The U.S. and its Western allies, on the other hand, “are exerting unprecedented pressure on independent states to maintain global dominance. To this end they use blatant blackmail, threats, color revolutions and coups, and spread gross disinformation,” Shoigu said. “Confrontational actions and sanctions imposed by the West are worsening the situation in the global economy, ruining communications, and artificially creating a food crisis.”
“Today, a tough sanctions and information war has been unleashed against Russia. And the conflict in Ukraine is just another pretext for this,” Shoigu continued. “The aim of the U.S. and its allies is to strategically deplete Russia to eliminate rivalry and warn other states pursuing an independent foreign policy.” He noted, however, that Russia has made “significant efforts to establish a legal basis for stability in Europe in the new environment.”
