MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) — The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) does not have plans to create its own military force despite various contradicting reports, the organization's Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev told journalists Friday.
"Basic provisions of the SCO charter, which are unchanged and have shown their relevance during 13 years of the organization's existence, do not provide for any kind of armed groups under the auspices of the organization," Mezentsev said.
Various Western and Russian sources reported that SCO was tending to become a military bloc, judging by the active military cooperation within the organization.
However, since 2006, SCO representatives have denied such plans, saying they the organization only focuses on issues surrounding counter-terrorism.
"That interaction with the ministry of defense, one of the indicators of which were the exercise called Peace Mission and which were successfully completed in August this year on the territory of one of the Chinese provinces, have the sole task of practicing interaction with SCO countries' units in the key of counter-terrorism," the secretary general added.
Peace Mission 2014 was held in August in China’s Inner Mongolia province. The drills saw some 7,000 participants from SCO countries, with the exception of Uzbekistan.
The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic and military alliance that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
