Senior Chinese leader emphasizes security cooperation within SCO

China is ready to work with Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to achieve more substantial results in maintaining regional security and stability and promoting economic growth, a senior Chinese leader said Thursday.

Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks as he met with security chiefs from member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The security chiefs, including Meng Jianzhu from China, M.M. Tazhin from Kazakhstan, B.B. Tabaldiev from Kyrgyzstan, Vladimir Bulavin from Russia, A.A. Kahharov from Tajikistan and B.Kh. Tashmatov from Uzbekistan, were in Beijing to attend the seventh meeting of SCO security council secretaries.

Zhou said the SCO meeting summed up the successful experience of law enforcement cooperation over the past decade and planned for future cooperation in the next decade.

The meeting has reached fresh consensuses and developed new measures for improving emergency mechanisms, fighting the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and combating drug trafficking, cross-border organized crimes and online crimes, he said.

He added the meeting has made sound preparations for the upcoming SCO summit in Beijing in June.

The security council secretaries meeting has become an important cooperative mechanism of the SCO and has won increasing attention from the international community, Zhou said, noting this was the first time that China hosted the security council secretaries meeting.

Tazhin said that over the past 10 years, the increasingly complex situation in the region and the world has added great significance to strengthening security and law enforcement cooperation in the region. He expressed the wish that SCO members move to enhance the regularity and long-term features of their security cooperation.

SCO Secretary-General Muratbek Imanaliev said during the meeting with Zhou that at the beginning of the second decade of the SCO, the security council secretaries meeting was a successful rehearsal for the SCO summit to be held in Beijing in June. He thanked the Chinese side for the efforts in securing the success of the meeting.

The SCO security chiefs met in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday.