ASTANA. July 4 (Interfax) - The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should be a guarantor of security in the region and use all available tools to maintain regional security, Chinese President Xi Jinping said.
"It is important to enrich the mechanism of security interaction with additional tools. The wider the choice of tools, the better the security. The process of building a universal center to counteract security challenges and threats together with its branches should be accelerated. Also, an anti-narcotics center should be set up, intelligence data exchange should be enhanced and joint operations conducted," Xi Jinping said, speaking at an SCO+ meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan on Thursday.
The SCO ought to serve as a guarantor of comprehensive, joint and lasting security, which will be established only when "all the countries feel secure." The Chinese leader called for combining efforts to maintain regional security.