International

Shanghai Group for closer ties

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: The Defence Ministers of the Shanghai Security Group have called for strengthening military and political cooperation among its members and decided to hold joint anti-terrorist training in Central Asia. The defence chiefs of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan met in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Central Asia in the run-up to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in St. Petersburg next month. A joint communique adopted at the meeting urged the member-countries to strengthen their military-political cooperation. Speaking after the meeting, the Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, said a decision had been taken to conduct joint anti-terrorist manoeuvres of the member-states in Central Asia. The Defence Ministers also supported the initiative of the Central Asian states to declare the region a nuclear-free zone. Uzbekistan, the sixth member of the group, was conspicuously absent from the meeting.

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