Shanghai Cooperation Organization committed to diplomatic solution of conflicts - chief

BEIJING, June 28. /TASS/. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) sees no alternative to solving conflicts worldwide by diplomatic means, SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov said on Wednesday. "The SCO remains firmly committed to the principle that there is no alternative to solving conflict situations through political and diplomatic means, on the basis of strict observance of general norms and principles of the international law, as well as in line with the goals and principles of the UN Charter," he said at the second annual conference of the non-governmental forum of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which opened in the Chinese capital earlier in the day. Alimov said that the SCO goal was to take "an active part in creating a fairer polycentric world that would reflect interests of each and every state" and "create an efficient global and regional architecture of security and cooperation." At the same time, he said that the global security continues to deteriorate due to terrorism-related threats in various regions worldwide. He named "joint effort against common challenges and threats, first of all international terrorism, separatism and extremism, the dissemination of their idelolgy and propaganda," as well as measures against drug trafficking and trans-border organized crime among the organization’s priorities. "The solution to the complicated task of efficiently counteracting the global terrorism necessitates the need to join efforts of the entire international community," the secretary-general said, adding that SCO leaders called for creating a broad anti-terrorism coalition in a joint statement adopted during the summit in Astana. Read more