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18 June 2001
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SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Defense ministers of a new six-nation Asian forum led by China and Russia criticized U.S. missile-defense plans Friday as harmful to world security. At a ceremony to inaugurate the Shanghai Coperation Organization, leaders of China, Russia and four Central Asian republics said they hoped the group would counterbalance American dominance of world affairs. The leaders lauded the new group as a step toward a world with more than one power center -- a veiled reference to the United States. The group will foster ''world multi-polarization,'' said Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Kyrgyzstan, President Askar Akayev said it would nurture the ''establishment of a fair and reasonable international order.'' Other members of the group are Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Tajikistan. It replaces the Shanghai Five, a forum created in 1996 to resolve border disputes and fight rising Islamic militancy. In a meeting Friday, defense ministers of the six nations singled out Washington for criticism, saying its proposed missile defense would have a ''negative impact on world security,'' according to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Deguang. Zhang said the new group was not a military alliance aimed at the United States. The governments want stability and security in Central Asia, but not by ''seeking military confrontation or establishing a military alliance, which was a feature of the Cold War era,'' Zhang told reporters. The leaders on Friday pledged to cooperate in exploiting oil, natural gas and minerals, which Central Asia has in abundance. China is keen to gain access to new energy for its expanding economy. But much of the agreement was devoted to joint efforts against Muslim separatists. The issue has given common ground to rivals Russia and China and the newly independent Central Asian republics, which are wary of domination by Moscow or Beijing. Many of the governments face rebels who they believe are getting arms and training from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban Islamic militia. ''The cradle of terrorism, separatism and extremism is the instability in Afghanistan,'' President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakstan warned. The leaders discussed an anti-terrorism center that they agreed to set up last year. Chinese officials refused to confirm reports that they also talked about joint military exercises and Chinese military aid to Kyrgyzstan. Moscow wants help in cutting outside support for Muslim guerrillas who are fighting a bloody independence war in Chechnya. Central Asian nations are worried about armed rebels based in Uzbekistan. China is fighting Muslim separatists who
are waging a campaign of assassination and bombings in its western region
of Xinjiang. The biggest ethnic group there, the Uighurs, are Muslims with
ties to Turkic groups dominant in much of Central Asia. |
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