MOSCOW (Dispatches) - Moscow will continue to boost military cooperation with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Pointing to the increase in Western states’ military presence in Asia, Africa and Latin America with the United States continuing to improve its military bases, Shoigu said at the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security that “we will continue to strengthen military cooperation with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region ... with which we have historically established particularly privileged relations.”
The Russian defense minister noted that the emergence of a multipolar world order, mechanisms for boosting cooperation between defense agencies, and the role of these agencies in assessing security threats have regularly been discussed within the framework of the security conference.
“The West, fearing a breakdown of the unipolar world and an open confrontation with a militarily strong adversary, is provoking local conflicts around the world,” he said.
He said that Western policies were aimed at weakening competitors to gain full control over existing resources and prevent any consolidation among those that try to oppose this process.
The 11th Moscow Conference on International Security has brought together experts, defense officials, and diplomats from around the world to discuss regional and global security issues.
In a congratulatory message to Kim released by the Kremlin, Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have pledged closer cooperation between the two countries as they exchanged letters marking North Korea’s National Liberation Day.
“I am sure that we will continue to build up bilateral cooperation in all areas for the benefit of our peoples, in the interests of strengthening stability and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the Northeast Asian region as a whole.
Putin further noted that groundwork was laid for close cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang during Korea’s liberation from Japan and “harsh wartime.”
In his letter to Putin, Kim stated for this part that the two countries’ friendship was forged in World War II with victory over Japan and is now “fully demonstrating their invincibility and might in the struggle to smash the imperialists’ arbitrary practices and hegemony,” Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
He pledged to develop Moscow-Pyongyang ties into “a long-standing strategic relationship.”