QINGDAO

Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh, Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Dauren Kossanov, China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun, Kyrgyzstan’s Defense Minister Ruslan Mukambetov, and Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif gather for a group photo during the Defense Ministers’ Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Qingdao, in eastern China’s Shandong province on June 26, 2025. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)

China hosted defense 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 NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.

Beijing 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.

The Qingdao meeting of the organization’s top defense officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.

It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defense spending to satisfy U.S. President Donald Trump.

Chinese defense Minister Dong Jun framed Thursday’s meeting of officials in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world in “chaos and instability”.

“As momentous changes of the century accelerate, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise,” Dong said as he welcomed defense chiefs from Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Belarus and elsewhere on Wednesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.

“Hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts severely undermine the international order,” he warned.

He urged his counterparts to “take more robust actions to jointly safeguard the environment for peaceful development”.

India’s defense Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges”.

“The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalisation, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments posted by his office on X.

And meeting Dong on the sidelines of the summit, Russian defense Minister Andrei Belousov hailed ties between the two countries as being “at an unprecedentedly high level”.

“Friendly relations between our countries maintain upward dynamics of development in all directions,” he said.

China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.