Bishkek - Leaders of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO), including world powers Russia and China, warned
Thursday against any attempt to impose a monopolistic world order, a
message which analysts took to be meant for Washington.
In a final declaration at their summit in the Kyrgyz capital
Bishkek, they warned that unilateral actions were not adequate to
solving existing problems.
The SCO consists of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
According to Interfax, the group said they had agreed to create a
common structure in order to be able to respond to threats to peace,
stability and security. Details of what this structure would be were
not immediately divulged.
The declaration warning against a monopolistic world order was
taken by analysts as meant for Washington and the Bush
administration's often unilateralist, go-it-alone approach to
international issues.
At the summit earlier Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin
said he saw agreement on security policies and the fight against
terrorism as the most important goal of the SCO meeting.
The main task of the summit should be 'the elimination of
terrorism, separatism and extremism,' Putin told journalists in
Bishkek before the meeting.
The SCO was founded in 2001 as a security-led forum but has since
expanded into other areas of cooperation.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said the summit would also focus on
economic cooperation between the six countries.
Indirect criticism of the United States came from Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who attended the CSO parley as an
observer, amid Iran's wish to become a member of the group.
Ahmadinejad blasted the US missile defence plans as a threat to a
large part of Asia. He said that planned system, generally believed
to be aimed at destroying missiles fired from Iran, threatens not
just one country but an entire continent.
'Unfortunately some countries have become accustomed to speak from
a position of force and threat,' Ahmadinejad said without naming the
US directly.
The Iranian leader also said that the US invasion of Iraq had
brought 'violent difficulties and great misfortune' to the people of
the region.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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