China highlights extremism threat, pledges deeper military ties with Kazakhstan

Name: ‘Nobody warned us’: Russia, Kazakhstan battle historic floods as Putin ally criticises response
Uploaded: 2024-04-26T08:00:14.000Z
Duration: 5 min 5 s
Description: ‘Nobody warned us’: Russia, Kazakhstan battle historic floods as Putin ally criticises response

Central Asian region faces ‘complex’ security situation, Chinese defence minister says in meeting with Kazakh president in Astana

Dong Jun was in Kazakhstan for the annual defence chiefs’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation security bloc

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China has been enhancing its security and economic cooperation with Kazakhstan in recent years. The two countries recently started work on a third rail link because of an increase in transit container traffic. Photo: Xinhua

Hayley Wongin Beijing

Published: 4:00pm, 26 Apr 2024

Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun has pledged to deepen military cooperation with Kazakhstan – Beijing’s key Central Asian partner – while also highlighting regional extremist threats.

Speaking to Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana on Thursday, Dong said the region was facing a “complex” security situation as the “three forces” – Beijing’s term for terrorism, separatism and extremism – were “becoming more active”.

Dong arrived in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for the annual defence chiefs’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Eurasian security bloc initiated in 2001 by China and Russia.

Since 2021, when the Taliban returned to power in Kabul, Beijing has repeatedly warned against a revival of terrorist forces in the region. In a 2023 position paper on the Afghanistan situation, China warned that the “three forces” still posed a “major security threat to the region and the world”.

During their meeting, Dong and Tokayev agreed to strengthen “strategic coordination”, according to a defence ministry statement.

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‘Nobody warned us’: Russia, Kazakhstan battle historic floods as Putin ally criticises response

“The Chinese military is willing to continue to expand areas of cooperation with Kazakhstan and promote the in-depth development of relations between the two militaries,” Dong said.