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Addressing the meeting, the President said that although the SCO is not a military organisation, in accordance with its charter it has a duty to help its members guarantee their security and protect themselves from the most complex modern threats, including terrorism and narcotics-related crime. Mr Medvedev said it is essential for the SCO members to jointly coordinate efforts to guarantee security and member countries’ defence capability.

Representatives of all the SCO member states took part in the meeting: the defence ministers of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, first deputy defence minister of Kazakhstan, deputy defence minister of Uzbekistan, and also SCO Secretary General Bolat Nurgaliev, and Director of the SCO Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure’s Executive Committee Myrzakan Subanov.

The SCO summit of August 2008 gave Russia presidency of the organisation for 2008–2009.