BEIJING
\nChina hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.
\nBeijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.
\nThe Qingdao meeting of the organisation\u2019s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Iran and Israel holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes. It is also being held the day after a summit of NATO leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy United States President Donald Trump.
\nChinese Defence Minister Dong Jun framed Thursday\u2019s meeting of officials in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world in \u201cchaos and instability\u201d. \u201cAs momentous changes of the century accelerate, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise,\u201d Dong said as he welcomed defence chiefs from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus and elsewhere on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
\n\u201cHegemonic, domineering and bullying acts severely undermine the international order,\u201d he warned. He urged his counterparts to \u201ctake more robust actions to jointly safeguard the environment for peaceful development\u201d. Meeting Dong on the sidelines of the summit, Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov hailed ties between the two countries as being \u201cat an unprecedentedly high level\u201d.
\n\u201cFriendly relations between our countries maintain upward dynamics of development in all directions,\u201d he said. China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending. Beijing has long sought to present the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n