Chinese general pledges to maintain SCO’s “Shanghai spirit”

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers have approved a new actions plan, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports. The SCO member states have pledged to be guided by principles of mutual respect, mutual benefit and consultative spirit. Signing of the document took a long time and was effected in silence. Marching in parade step, female military of the Kazakh mobile air service were delivering documents to be signed to each participant. Following the sitting, the defense ministers had a press-conference. Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov emphasized that close cooperation within the SCO contributes strongly to the regional security. China's Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guanglie reiterated that China would be further maintaining the “Shanghai spirit” of the Organization. “For the 10 years we have been cooperating successfully within the SCO. We have exchanged experience in countering terrorism, we have contributed to professionalism of the military and had joint exercises”, he said. March 16 Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov met his Chinese counterpart China's Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guanglie for bilateral talks. The sides emphasized it had been their 5th meeting for the last year and a half, which gives a strong impetus to ties between the two armies. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental mutual-security organization which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Except for Uzbekistan, the other countries had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organization. Kazakhstan is this year's rotating chair state of the SCO.